


Journey of Phantasia: The Dream-Weaver

by OrgroWritingStuff



Series: Journey of Phantasia [4]
Category: Journey of Phantasia
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dark Magic, Dream Magic, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Fantasy - Freeform, Fantasy Violence, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Historical Fantasy, M/M, Magic-Users, Magical Realism, Multi, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform, Partial Mind Control, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sleep Deprivation, Wizards, alternate dream-worlds, hella gay wizards as well, i guess?, no seriously it gets kinda steamy in this fic, ooohh nooooo albedo what you doing, swamps, wooooouuuhhh spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrgroWritingStuff/pseuds/OrgroWritingStuff
Summary: The swamps of North-Phantasia always were a treacherous place. But when an odd presence appears in the swamp that puts everyone who gets in contact with it to sleep, Ayan and his friends see themselves forced with finding the source and putting a stop to it. The presence spreads by the day. Should they succeed, then who knows what bounty the forlorn swamps will hold. But should they fail, Phantasia and perhaps even all of Drimrawn will fall into a deep, endless slumber…
Relationships: Albedo Khalagar/Firus Evrosim, Ayan Dragonsbane & Albedo Khalagar, Ayan Dragonsbane & Lousine of Eldivar, Ayan Dragonsbane & Vuraria, Ayan Dragonsbane/Lousine of Eldivar, Ayan Dragonsbane/Vuraria, Lousine of Eldivar/Vuraria, Vuraria/Ayan Dragonsbane, Vuraria/Lousine of Eldivar
Series: Journey of Phantasia [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573519
Kudos: 1





	1. The Morning Before

**Author's Note:**

> (Not finished yet but I hope it will be soon. Depends on how long I'll take to come up with grey matter in-between important scenes. Also the chapters are a bit shorter than what I usually do per request from a friend. Oops.)

The three children, the horse and the grumpy old wizard found themselves on a broad sand road, running through a wide field. They had just departed from a meeting with the Kings of the Fauns in the Forest of Stone, and were babbling about where to go next.  
“We should go to the dwarves again.” Ayan said. He was getting thirsty and the thought of a cold glass of mead made him smack his lips and pat his stomach. “Too cold. Too high up.” Vuraria grumbled. She walked hand-in-hand with Ayan and was in her usual unhappy mood. “We could go to the steppes instead. Then we could all ride some horses.”   
“That close to the capital?” Lousine responded to Vuraria’s complaints. She turned her head around, as she was the one riding on Bayo’s back at the front. “Do remind yourself that all of us are currently deemed criminals and that Ayan is considered Public Enemy Number One, Vuraria.”   
“Pfah.” Vuraria spat on the ground. Some smoke rose from where it splotched. “All because of your dumb mother deciding that she doesn’t like him.” - “It’s more complicated than that, Vuraria.” Lousine interrupted. “We did commit crimes. All of us. If I’d talk to her now she’d lock me up once more, and then what will we do?”  
Ayan grinned, slightly, but also felt quite uneasy. “I’d have to agree with her here… I really wouldn’t like to get flogged again.” His back itched when he thought of it. Bayo walked slower, sensing something was wrong, and despite Lousine’s attempt to set the horse back on the path, Bayo rubbed his head against Ayan’s and let out a huff.Vuraria sighed, and raised her shoulders. “I know, I-… I know, alright? But then where do we go?”

“We could go to the swamps.” Grumbled Albedo behind them. He’d said nothing to them since their departure from the Forest of Stone, but now he spoke. “It’s nearby, it’s close to the borders for an easy escape, and it’s just hidden enough for the royal guard to never find us there.”   
“A… Swamp?” Lousine replied, once Bayo finally continued walking on the road. “Are we- Are we well-equipped for that?”“He could turn you into a frog, ‘Your Majesty’. You’d fit right at home.” Vuraria joked. She seemed to enjoy her own joke quite a lot, leaning forward to catch her breath. Lousine did not seem to enjoy the joke as much, and only frowned, letting out a formal “Ha-ha.” before turning her head back to the road. Albedo snickered behind them. “Only in emergencies.”   
“Be nice, you.” Ayan chuckled before giving Vuraria a tap on her behind. This caused Vuraria to tense up and jump a little. Ayan then looked over his shoulder to Albedo, who was rummaging through his bag.   
“What way do we go, then? To the swamp, I mean?” As much as he wanted a cold drink, he felt as if there was something exciting waiting for them in the swamps. Albedo smiled. They came to a crossroads where one road on the left led to a bridge over a lazy river, and the other to the right seemed to head more into the hillside.   
The old wizard rubbed his bearded chin in thought. Lousine took in the view, Vuraria looked around for potential dangers and Ayan was just patiently waiting for Albedo’s answer. Bayo had taken this opportunity to stop and eat some grass. “The left.” He pointed towards the bridge with his old long finger. Ayan looked at it, and pulled a face. Then he turned back to Albedo. “Iiiiii don’t think so. It doesn’t look like that’s the right way.”Albedo looked the boy straight into the eyes, his hands at his sides. “Ayan, I am three-hundred-and-eighty-eight years old, and I assure you that in those three-hundred-and-eighty-eight years I had always taken the left.” “I’m still not sure. I think it’s the right. I have a feeling it is.” Ayan defiantly shook his head, crossing his arms at his old friend’s tirade. Albedo was starting to get mad. “I know my way around here since before your parent’s parents were even born.” - “Apparently not, because we’re still going nowhere.” Vuraria sighed, her back turned to them. She could hear Lousine chuckle from the back of the horse and blinked at it a little. Oh. She found it funny?   
Albedo straightened himself, then puffed up his chest and stuck one finger in the air. “If I am wrong, and I am not, then may the very wrath of the heavens fall down upon me!” 

And, as fate would have it, not half an hour after that the hardest thunderstorm in years hit the north of Phantasia. They managed to find a hay-filled shed for shelter just in time. 

“Coincidence.” Grumbled Albedo, drenched to his shoes. “Pure coincidence.”

They decided to stay the night here, as no one wanted to go back to traveling in the heavy storm outside. Hay prickled Ayan’s face as he tried to snooze. They’d taken Bayo inside too, who did not seem too bothered. Free hay!   
The sounds of the storm blowing against the shed outside gave them feelings of comfort, and it didn’t take long for the three children to fall asleep in the hay. Ayan slept under the hay, Vuraria slept in the hay, and Lousine slept on the hay with a blanket. She’d known them for long, but she still had her preferences. Albedo didn’t sleep, at least not now. He kept his eye on the door of the shed for danger. But the night was still long, and the rain was soothing. Albedo too fell asleep within minutes.

Ayan dreamt funny. He dreamt of layers of purple veil, stretching for miles. He dreamt of the smell of lavender and all of a sudden he stood in a field with purple grass and a pink sky. Before him, on the field, appeared a fox. A sleek, sly thing. Ayan chased the fox, feeling as he had no other choice. There was nothing else found in the purple grass and the pink sky. Besides, chasing things was fun! But the fox was quick and ducked sideways every time Ayan grabbed it. They ran for miles, it seemed, and Ayan lurched for the fox multiple times, but it was simply too fast for him to get. Then the fox ran straight ahead. Now Ayan knew he had it! He chased after it as fast he could, but the fox was just out of his reach. Ayan’s eye was only on the fox. He had to catch it! They ran and ran and ran with Ayan’s vision only faceted on the fox… Until it ran between the legs of a big, hairy creature, and Ayan could not see it any longer. He looked up, and the thing before him was a big, white glowing dog, with eyes radiating a pure blue. It was twice as tall as Ayan was. He stopped in his tracks, his need for the hunt replaced with a petrifying fear. The dog looked at him, its tail curled, and it barked so loud that he fell over.   
Ayan woke up.

At breakfast, once they’d successfully sneaked away from the shed without leaving as much as a trace as a few hairs, Ayan decided to share his strange dream with the others. They sat on a tartan blanket, in a field at the edge of town. Having a picnic for breakfast was something they’d often done before, so Ayan would’ve expected everyone to at least look a little cheerier. The sun was up, the flowers were about to bloom and the townspeople in the distance did their work or traded their goods. But his friends all looked tired, stressed. Especially Albedo. His yellow eyes harboured a tired frustration that would make most people back away in fear. “Has anyone else slept this bad?” Ayan asked as he rubbed his eyes. He grabbed an apple that lay on the blanket and rubbed it against the fabric of his vest. “You too?” Asked Lousine in return. She yawned. Vuraria only grumbled and leaned her head on Ayan’s shoulder. “Five more minutes…” She mumbled. Albedo kept looking at the ground and saying nothing. He held a salt-shaker in his hand, and let copious amounts of the salt drop on his boiled egg.“Albedo…” Ayan tapped his arm. Nothing. “Albedo.” Ayan said, and tapped, now a little louder and harder. Only a twitch in Albedo’s eye, but still nothing. “Albedo!!!” Ayan fully pushed against Albedo, and now he jumped awake, tossing the salt-shaker into the air. Lousine saw where it would land and dived towards it onto the grass, catching it just in time. “What… What, what? Who- Urgh….” Albedo looked at the mountain of salt with his egg in the middle. Ayan smiled, then yawned. He took a bite of his apple. That made him feel slightly more awake and energised. 

“Do not even get me started.” Grumbled Albedo, wiping the salt off his egg. “A heap of moments I’d rather not talk about… Most involving my brother.” Albedo visibly shivered. Something in his dreams had ticked him off good. “That sounds kind-of like mine,” Mumbled Vuraria. She kept her head on Ayan’s shoulder but still managed to grab a good piece of bread, and eat it just like that, much to the discomfort of Lousine. “A weird big dragon-lady-and-a-man telling me I wasn’t worth a damn, and then I disappeared.” Ayan looked to his side. What she said stirred up the feeling that he had to help. “Oh, nooo, babe!” He gave her a big hug, patting her on the head. Lousine was busy putting a slice of cheese on her own bread, looking and listening to the dreams of the others. She looked down, raising her shoulders a bit. “I… Just dreamt about my mother. And how I would replace her one day…” Ayan got even more sad now, and reached for her to give her a pat on the shoulder. Vuraria didn’t let him. She really needed this hug. Ayan spread his arms instead, but Lousine only wished to eat her bread.“And what about you?” Grumbled Albedo. He looked straight at Ayan. His face had something deep, dark, and distracted around it, but that quickly changed to a sour, scrunched face. There was still too much salt on his egg.Now Ayan looked away, lowering his arms. What happened in the dream still bothered him. But he had to tell it. “A dog… A big dog that was giant and glowing and, well, big. A terribly spooky big white dog. I ran into it after chasing…-““A fox.” Replied all three of them in unison. They looked at each other in shock, then realisation. “Something else is at play here, isn’t there?” Asked Lousine. “I indeed think there is.” Replied Albedo, taking another bite of his overly-salted egg. “And we’re going to get to the bottom of it.” 

There was a notice-board in the town. Their best guess was that maybe there was a bounty on a monster there, one that would cause something dream-related. They’d left Bayo to graze at the stables at the edge of town.   
“Hmmm… Let’s see…” Albedo mumbled to himself as he looked over the notice-board. “Missing bucket, that can happen… Frog-attacks, not uncommon near a swamp… And-““An essence?” Asked Vuraria.Albedo looked at her, over his shoulder. “Pardon?” Vuraria pointed at a leaflet that was richly decorated at the corners. “This one talks about a weird essence. Something that has people fall asleep.” She sniffed, since the morning-air made her get a cold.   
“That can also just be coincidence, or a Mara. You don’t know that.” Albedo grumbled as he looked back at the notice board. Ayan was trying his best to read off of the leaflets and Lousine was looking around. The people around them seemed far too busy with something else. They looked… Pressured.“All I know is that this is obviously hinting at something else. Sleep, dreams… Pretty close together, don’t you think?” Vuraria continued. She remained firm in what she thought. This all was just a bit too suspicious for her. But Albedo wouldn’t have any of it.  
“Vuraria, I know my monsters. Just let me-““OUT OF THE WAY! OUT OF THE WAY! WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE!” The loud calling and the chiming of a bell disturbed the four of them. They saw a group of four people carrying a wooden stretcher, on which a man lay. The man was fast asleep, and snoring loudly, and the four people looked both very determined and very upset. They carried the stretcher into the town’s church. Vuraria and Albedo looked at one another. The old wizard finally caved, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Well, fine, then! We’ll go look!” Vuraria smirked, and she grabbed Ayan by the hand to be the first to go inside the church. Lousine remained, to look at Albedo. “What do you think this all is?” She asked. But Albedo only shook his head. “I have no idea, but what it is… It cannot be good.”


	2. Sleepless Days and Worrisome Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A search is launched and the perpetrator is discovered, yet that on its own is not without risks, for something has discovered them as well...

Many stretchers lay inside the church. At least twenty of them, which, for a town like this, was quite a lot. All of the people on the stretchers were fast asleep. Some lay alone, others were surrounded by crying people, or here and there a praying priest. Lousine immediately went over to the most important-looking priest and asked what was going on.

"That is hard to say, my child... But as you can see, none so far are spared. From farmers to lumbers and traders alike."   
"But why are they asleep?" Asked Lousine. She wasn't pleased with the answer yet.

The priest shook his bald head. "We don't know that. We now wait until they awaken. It's been a week already, and no sign of waking."   
Now Albedo stepped up to the fray. He left the two other children unattended. He got right to the point with the priest, because he knew that if they wasted their time on useless info they'd get stuck and end up nothing the wiser.   
"Is there any clue to where these people have been last?" He looked to his side. Most of the sleeping people were men. He saw a mother and two children looking over one of the stretchers and looked back to the priest before he could feel some empathy slipping into his heart.

The priest seemed confused by Albedo's question, but answered nevertheless. "Most of them had business in or near the swamps..."   
Albedo looked up, nodded, and slightly smiled. "That is all I needed to know. Good-bye." He left the church, and Lousine remained, very confused. She apologised to the priest for her friend's behaviour, but he merely smiled.   
"There's no need for that, child. Just stay away from the swamps, that is all I ask." Lousine smiled back. Knowing the antics she and her friends would get into, she feared she had no choice in the matter. "I'll... Try." She then bowed in respect and turned around to see Vuraria getting kicked out of the church, Ayan in tow. Judging by the sticks of charcoal in her hand, she and Ayan probably tried out something really dumb. And as she saw the multiple obscene shapes drawn on a lone sleeping man's face, Lousine _definitely_ knew they tried out something really dumb.

There was one detail they had missed, however.

Each of the victims had a vague, purple-ish hue around their ears. It was barely visible, but it could still be felt. Cold to the touch, yet lulling and drowsing whoever came close enough...  
  
Albedo was outside, pacing at the road at the end of the village. People were trying their best to avoid him. Albedo looked at the swamp nearby. The townsfolk were bordering the road off with fences, and Albedo stood by and watched. He was contemplating something. The three children quickly caught up to him.   
"Albedo!"  
-"Yes, yes, Vuraria was correct. The leaflet and the people falling asleep do have something in common, I see that know. I-" He grumbled before he was interrupted by Ayan, who jumped on the waist-high stone wall right next to him, and sat down. "But, you got a plan?"   
Albedo shook his head. "Not yet. The most we can do now is carefully check for ourselves." He stared angrily at the swamp, sure that he could see something in that vast, bubbling area of overgrown plants and stagnant water...

Vuraria was too busy rubbing her scrapes and bruises to really be pleased with being right. She looked from the swamp to Albedo, and then to the others. "Every other person that went close to there has gotten asleep." She said bluntly.   
"Indeed." Said Albedo, and he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Whatever is in there does not want an audience." Ayan and Lousine nodded, but Vuraria remained uncomfortably silent.   
"Every other person... It probably won't expect a frog or a mouse, whatever is in there." She leaned her elbows on the wall, and sighed. The remaining three turned to her. Ayan with wonder, Lousine with surprise, and Albedo with... An ominous glow on his face. He took a deep breath. "Are you sure?" He asked.   
"Never been so sure in my life. Not that I care about these people, but, just-.... Forget it." She jumped over the wall, dropping herself over the edge... But where Vuraria fell, a bristly black-coated rat now ran through the grass, towards the swamp.

Ayan waved her goodbye. Albedo stared at the swamp, and Lousine looked at Albedo. She seemed uncertain.  
"What... What should we do in the meantime?"

"I don't get it." Lousine muttered and sighed as she walked around in circles near the stone wall. "For a night and a day she has been gone, and still no word." They'd gotten barely any sleep since they waited for Vuraria to come back, so Lousine looked more tired than before. Desperate, even.

"Maybe she's giving that monster-or-whatever the fight of a lifetime!" Ayan swung his fists in the air, but knocked his hand against a branch that fell a whole distance away. He got careless when he was tired. "...Oh."   
"Or maybe she's stuck." Grumbled Albedo. It was barely audible. The rings around his eyes had gotten visibly darker. He yawned loudly and looked at the swamp. "I don't want to wait. We have to follow, to look for her." Normally, he wouldn't make these rash decisions. But their situation was dire and the lack of sleep tampered with his once-sober way of thought.

Lousine nodded. As annoying as she was, she did somewhat care for Vuraria. "Let us, then. Before it's too late." Ayan wiped the sleep out of his eyes before he yawned and nodded. "Let's go!"

Despite the many warnings the townsfolk gave them, they stepped into the swamp. There was a path for them to walk on, and Albedo deemed it safe, so they did. He walked up front, with Lousine behind him and Ayan behind her to watch their backs. The swamp had a nauseating air around it, enough to keep them on their toes but dim enough with the air to keep them from being fully awake. But they had no choice. They had to find Vuraria, and beat up the thing responsible for all these sleeping people. They were greeted with a gathering of willows on the sides of their path, and low reeds and soggy grass which bordered to knee-deep swamp-water. As early as the spring was, the bugs present thrived, and it wasn't long before they curiously peeked at the three new intruders as they treaded cautiously over the path...

By the light of Albedo's staff guiding them through the dimming thicket, they came across a dark clearing. And there, alone... Lay a sleeping Vuraria.

"YES! THERE!" Shouted Ayan, forgetting all their planning and throwing his caution to the wind. Only through Albedo swiftly grabbing him by the collar did he get restrained.   
"Wait. Something is fishy..." Albedo breathed in deep, and pulled Ayan back. He'd gotten visibly more irritable as the day went on, but so had all of them. "I have not seen any swamp-fish around, Albedo. I'm not sure what you..." Lousine's distracted response was cut short by her yawn. "Mean." Albedo ignored what she said, and carefully stepped forward, staff in hand. His tired mind was dulled, but he expected an attack, or an ambush, or anything. But nothing came.

"Vuraria..." He knelt down and lightly touched her face with the back of his hand. No response. The wizard shut his eyes tight and pressed his fingers against his brow in frustration. He took a few deep, shaky breaths, and it was obvious that he was very upset.  
"Whoever did this to her... And to all of them... I'll..." His fist clenched, shivering. Ayan and Lousine ran forward and tried all they could to get Vuraria to wake up, light tapping, calling her name, even splashing one of the last remaining bits of water on her that they had with them, but nothing worked. Ayan felt tears fall down his cheeks, knowing he could never hang out with his best friend again, and he held her in his arms and sobbed. Lousine, too, was beyond herself at this point, but stared ahead, trying to keep her last sober thought intact.

  
Albedo suddenly raised his head up like a wolf that heard a snapping twig. "Wait..." He grumbled. "Do that again, Ayan. Lay her down and then pick her back up."

"Why?" Ayan sobbed. "I-I don't want to bury her-"  
  
"Just do as I say." Hissed Albedo. He had no mind for games right now, and he snarled. "I heard something. The clinking of metal."   
So Ayan did as his old friend said, laying Vuraria down and then picking her back up to hold in his arms, and now he heard a noise too, in-between his sobs. "What... Was that?" He asked.   
Albedo raised his hand over Vuraria's head, he felt his head bob from the outside and pound from the inside, but he had to try something. He knew there was something that had enchanted Vuraria.

From between his widespread, shaking fingers came a dark-purple hue, and within only a few moments, two locks became visible, that hung on both of the lobes of Vuraria's ears. She made a little noise as this happened.   
"Vuraria?!" Lousine jerked awake, as she heard the noise. But it was nothing. She was still asleep. Lousine was more confused than anything, having dozed off only a few seconds ago. She saw the locks and knew Albedo had uncovered something.  
Ayan had a less positive response to this news. His dulling mind made him reckless, and he laid Vuraria down gently before he gave Albedo an angry glare. The old man had lurched over with a hand on his head, trying not to faint.   
  
"Those locks.... What did you DO to her, you witch?"   
Albedo snarled. "All I did was make a hex visible, that was placed on her, you- You-... Empty head with a brain-size of a walnut!" Lousine tried to mediate and negotiate, as she had been raised to do. She stepped between the two and gently held her arms out. "Don't fight... Don't-" She yawned. "That will only make things worse. Let's just find our way back, and figure out what those locks-"

Ayan and Albedo glared once more at each other before they sat with their backs turned. "This lack of sleep is getting the worst out of us." Albedo huffed. "I'd rather have us leave with Vuraria until I found a way to be immune to... This." Ayan then grumbled, but nodded. "And then when I find who did this, I'm going to beat them into a pulp. I'll-"   
  
Their plan's baby-steps were loudly interrupted by the sounds of scraping metal and talking voices.

"Oh no." Groaned Lousine. She recognised what it was and hid behind Albedo. Albedo clenched his fists and Ayan was bobbing his head, trying to stay awake. The noises came towards them, and soon the shine of armour glistened through the half-dark.

"Your highness!" Shouted one of the voices between the metal. "Your highness, is that you? Don't worry, we're here to save you from...- From whatever it is that brought you here!"   
Albedo quickly grabbed Ayan by the collar and dragged the boy behind him. He carefully did the same to Vuraria, and braced himself. "Wait." Albedo muttered, before getting a dark spark ready in his hands. "I have... A better idea, Lousine. Try to lure them when they get here." He said, and he rubbed his hands, and smiled fiendishly.

A patrol of guards came across an empty clearing. They were sure the princess was there. She had been 'lost' from the castle, and a rich reward was to be granted to the guard who could find her. "Highness!" The guards shouted. A dozen at most, fresh troops, weighted by their full outfits and carrying large, clunky glaives. "Your highness, are you here? We're sure we heard you here!" Your majesty!"

"I'm right here! In the clearing!" Shouted Lousine, but the guards saw nothing. They merely kept walking around a seemingly empty clearing, poking between the trees with their glaives and rustling the treetops to try and find her hidden there. But that didn't work. Albedo had hidden them in a sphere that made them unseen by the outside world, and Ayan tried hard not to giggle as he saw the guards bumbling around without a clue where her voice was coming from. "Where then, your majesty?" 

But before Lousine could respond, there was another voice. It was high, and smooth, and mysterious, and it seemed to come from inside the tree-tops. It had a slight ring to it, which made the hairs on the back of Albedo's neck stand up. His hands cramped and the sphere of unseeing almost vanished. The voice said: "What tin-can intrusion goes this loudly through my home?" The guards looked, and searched, but now not for the princess. They raised their glaives and stood with their backs to each other, determined to find the source of the voice. "Who- Who goes there?! Show yourself!"   
  
Something jumped down from out of nowhere, landing gently between them. A vague black, glimmering shape, with orange and purple at its edges. The guards turned around in a panic and fell against one another, and the clanking and scraping of metal on metal was loud. Ayan almost cried laughing, but he soon fell silent as he looked at what had jumped down.

Albedo shivered, and tensed up. His voice turned to a whisper. "I think we found the source."

A slim, pale man stood in-between the panicking guards. A long, black coat hung gracefully around his shoulders, and it glimmered in the vague light of the sun. The edges at the neck, cuffs and the tail-end of the coat were puffed in a purper bristly wool, making the man seem all the more mystifying. His ears were long, partly hidden behind the ginger hair that was as bristly as the edges of the coat, and on each of his ear-lobes hung a dark lock, glowing with purple. The three still left awake in the sphere were shocked, and Lousine gasped audibly. She threw her hands over her mouth in the hopes that the man did not hear her, and Albedo tried everything in his power to keep the sphere up. With his fear overriding his exhaustion, that was an easier thing to do.

The man looked around, at the disturbance in the clearing, and smiled. "You make too much noise. A quick nap would do you good." And he snapped his fingers, twirling around to let the coat soar for extra effect. The guards collapsed, one by one, all with a faint, ethereal glow of a lock in their ears... The ones in the sphere felt their hearts stop when the man looked around, to his satisfying result of sleeping guards, and then turned to look right at them. His eyes, were they were once a cheery brown-tint, glazed over to turn to a dark blue.

"Clever, clever. But it will take more than that to fool me. If you are as bad as she was then you too deserve a little time-out."

"Who are you?" Growled Albedo. "Why are you doing this?"   
  
The man pressed a finger to his lips and chuckled. "All in due time."

Albedo wanted to fire a spell. Ayan wanted to rush to the fight and Lousine wanted to grab Vuraria and scream, but those plans were cut short when they felt a dizzying haze fall over them. Albedo lost power, the sphere vanished, and the last thing they saw was the cruel smile on the slim face of the man. Blue eyes stared clearly at them through a purple-pink haze...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay I've been (and am) MAD busy. Still trying, though. Getting the drive to write and make plots is hard. I'm trying, though. I won't be deterred.


	3. The Reawakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Each trapped in a dream, the group has to find their way out, one by one...

Ayan jolted upright. His heart rushed and white flashes fell over his vision as he looked around. "Where... What?" He wasn't in the swamp any longer. The air here wasn't clammy, and there was plenty of sun. Odd... Instead, He was in a field, not purple and pink but lush green, and at the edge of a haystack. Sheep walked here, and at the horizon he could see the mountaintops. Was he home? He breathed in deep, and smelled the air and the hay, and the flowers and the grass in the field. He felt refreshed and comfortable, like he'd had a great rest. That was odd too. Because he knew he slept terribly these past few nights. He got up and gave where he was a better look. There was something moving inside the haystack...

"Hello, Ayan."

"Vuraria!" Ayan called out. He ran to the haystack and spread his arms for a hug. He plummeted straight against her and they fell deeper into the hay, laughing. "Am I glad to see you!" Ayan laughed, before he rolled off to sit in the haystack. "Let's go find the others. Knowing Lousine and Albedo, they're not too far away-"

Vuraria grabbed his arm before he could leave. "No, stay." She nuzzled closer to him and restricted more of his movement. Ayan yanked and tugged, but didn't get loose. "Just for a moment. I've had a terrible sleep before you got here." Ayan shrugged. This was very Vuraria-like behaviour. He sighed and laid back in the hay. But he veered up again, and looked at Vuraria who lay snuggled by his side with her eyes closed.   
"How long have you been here, then?"

No response.   
Now Ayan got suspicious. He plucked some hay-strands out of his hair and looked more closely at Vuraria. Was that... Locks in her ears?   
"How did we get out of the swamps? Did we carry you?"

Vuraria grumbled. "Will you shut up and just sleep with me?" Ayan frowned, and yanked himself loose with a hard pull from his arm. He jumped out of the hay before he noticed the sky turning dark... And oddly purple.   
  
He looked over his shoulder to see Vuraria lean on her arms, then, in front of his eyes, turn into a giant, angry black dog.   
"I said, SLEEP."   
Ayan felt his heart pound in his throat. He could now clearly see the locks on Vuraria's ears. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. He wanted to run first, but felt his legs had almost sunken into the floor. He couldn't leave. He took deep shivery breaths and prepared for a fight as the giant black Vuraria-dog lunged for him with deadly fangs.   
"No!" He shouted. "You're not real! This isn't real!"

He knew he was right when he finally woke up, back in the clearing of the swamp. He gasped for air, tears in his eyes and a cold clammy feeling cast over him like a blanket in the airtight swamp. His eyes felt like they were made of lead, his throat was dry and his head pounded, but he was awake.

His friends weren't.

The extravagant sleep-magic-man in the coat was nowhere to be found, and neither were the guards, so Ayan crawled around the clearing to try and get his friends to wake up. All of them had those glowing, purple locks in their ears. Ethereal, so not bound to the flesh, but rather bound to the dreams and the soul of the victim. They moved, and shifted around, but never woke. Ayan had no way to wake them up. He didn't want to make noise, he had nothing to carry water with, and the road was too long to get any help. And knowing he couldn't save his friends made him horribly, horribly sad. He didn't want to leave them here. He'd rather wait until one of them woke up, or until the fancy sleep-magic-man came back. He lay in-between his sleeping friends, on his side, with his knees raised high, his head down and his arms over his head, weeping.

In the dream of her own, Vuraria had a far more pleasant experience with Ayan. She and her were feasting and laughing in the cosiest tavern she'd ever been in, all on Albedo's tab. They hung shoulder-to-shoulder, her, Ayan, and Lousine, begrudgingly. They laughed and drank and sang for ages, it seemed. Never once did she bothered to look for the locks, or for any wisp of purple, or any other signs. The night was young and endless, the drinks were overflowing, and the mood got more and more jolly.

She had already lost count of how many kegs she drank when Ayan got up from the table, and beckoned her to follow him upstairs. She didn't think about it a second time and gave Albedo a big push before she went. Albedo did nothing. Come to think of it, he'd never been this silent. Not one complaint. Lousine, as well, seemed to harbour nothing negative to her this night. No overly-preachy words of advice, no words of caution... Simply no words.

But Vuraria did not think about this. She went upstairs.

"Listen." Ayan was already in the room upstairs when Vuraria slammed the door shut behind her. She heard the lock click. She stopped only for one moment, knowing she didn't do anything other than open and close that door. Then she walked over to Ayan. Those drinks had seemingly no effect, much to her liking... And slight curiosity.

"Yes, what?" Vuraria replied, trying to not smile as she looked at the single bed in the room. She rubbed her hands in anticipation. Ayan still had his back to her and his face to the closed window. There was only darkness outside, and Vuraria could've sworn that there was a road there. It even used to be well-lit, damn it! "Where did that go..." She mumbled. Ayan turned around to her and her mood was completely thrown off.   
Where she thought Ayan would have almost the same mischievous grin on his face as hers, his face looked pale, with eyes red and soaked with tears. "I-... I wanted you to wake up. I love you."

Vuraria walked over to him, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. She could feel no warmth from him. Odd...   
"Silly, we wake up afterwards, not before! How much did you have to drink?" She leaned in for a kiss, which Ayan returned. She closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation but felt no hands on her. She groaned out of annoyance and leaned back, opening her eyes. "Don't tell me you've forgotten how to kiss, sheep-face!"

She raised her eyebrows in surprise when she looked at a face that had not one trace of tears on it. Ayan looked... Normal. But that weird kind of normal that someone who was ten drinks in would normally not have. Vuraria leaned back even more, removing her arms from Ayan as he only smiled. There was a glow on his ears. Vuraria looked around the room. It was oddly dark. The room downstairs was awfully silent. And wouldn't Albedo normally knock on the door to tell them to 'stop dilly-dallying around' by this point? There were no tricks of him in the room either. No rat on the bed, no owl in the window-sill. And, by the gods, where was Lousine with her endless prude tirades of 'how dare you do such a thing'-this and 'wait until marriage'-that. Come to think of it, Vuraria almost missed it. But now that she was stuck in a dark room with seemingly nothing outside, with someone who she wasn't even sure of was Ayan, now did she miss it the most.

"You're not really him, are you?..." She asked, suspiciously. She squinted and pointed a finger at him. The almost-Ayan did nothing and only smiled. "How did you guess?" A flash came from the purple tint around his ears, and where once Ayan stood, there was the man she had seen earlier. Pale face, tall and thin, bright orange hair and eyes that seemed to give no mercy. The locks in the man's face twinkled.

"Such a shame. We were so alike. No gods, no kings, no masters. But, you had to ruin it. Truly disappointing." The man grumbled before changing his form into a dragon on two legs, who frowned at her and lurched for her throat. Its dark scales came right up to her face until she woke up with a scream.   
  
"WAIT!" Ayan snapped out of his weeping. He scrambled himself back together and saw Vuraria, heaving, drenched with the sweat of fear. He crawled over to her and toppled her with a hug. "You're- You're alive!" Vuraria pushed him off of her and reached for the coiled leathery white snake on her belt. "Get the hell away from me you-"   
"Vuraria! It's me!" Ayan was ecstatic. She finally woke up, and he wanted a hug! Vuraria looked at him and let go of the whip on her belt before she flew into Ayan's arms, crying.   
"Oh, gods... It was awful. I-I saw you but, it wasn't you! And they weren't them!-...?" She pointed and then immediately lowered her finger to the two still-sleeping people. "How did you... Get here?"   
"It's.... It's a lot to explain." Ayan said, out of breath. He gave her another big hug and he was sure he almost broke something of hers. "Oh... O-Oops."

"No worries." She grabbed a crunchy snack out of her bag. She stared once again at Lousine and Albedo while Ayan hugged her again. "In my dream, I don't think you were you either." Ayan said. "You wouldn't... Turn into a dog if I didn't want to take naps with you, would you?"

"Would you turn into a dragon-person when we were the only people in a room?" Vuraria asked.

Ayan giggled, shaking his head. "I can't do that."

They hugged each other one more time, waiting for them both to calm down and for the others to wake up. "At least you are here." They thought. But the pivoting of the scales between snoozing in safety and staying awake in paranoia was never this harsh.

"Was there... A man with a coat, a black coat, that made you sleep, or something?" Ayan asked between yawns. He stood guard while Vuraria sat in the middle of the sleeping two. Vuraria only nodded.   
"How'd you guess? Fancy guy. He didn't like me as much when I started asking him about those sleeping people, though. I can't remember much after that." She huffed and raised her shoulders. "But when we find him again, I'll kill him. I don't want these two losers to go asleep forever."   
  
"I'm here now, though. Not everything's lost." Ayan replied.   
  
"I can't pester you as I pester these two. You mean a lot to me, but, you know..." Vuraria let her hand hover over Lousine. She looked still as a meadow-flower, in a field with a lack of wind. Vuraria fell silent looking at it. She quickly turned to Albedo who was laying on his side, twitching by occasion and making gruff, short noises in his sleep. "They... Them too, I guess."

Ayan smiled as he looked at Vuraria. "You like themmmmm, don't lie about it." He chuckled and clapped his hands like an excited child. Vuraria looked at the ground, grinning. "Shut up."

Lousine's dream was not by far as still and gentle as she was. She sat at a writing desk in her room in the castle, with a wide-open window leading out into the outside world. She wrote on a clear paper with blurry, unclear words, that she didn't care about, copying text from an indecipherable book. For her eye was on the window. Someone climbed up from outside the window. She got up from the table and looked.   
  
"What are you looking at?"

Lousine snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at the book on her table. The letters here were unclear as well.

The dream became warped. Every straight line in her sight became blurry. Before she could even blink, she found herself not in her room, but in a barren field. Only a dried dead tree grew on a ledge by her side, an odd, molten thing hanging over one of its branches. It was black, and shiny. She reached out to touch it, curious but also afraid. It turned to fabric in the blink of an eye. From the fabric grew puffed purple edges, and from within the coat formed the pale, slender man from before. He sat on the branch and smiled at her deviously and she retracted her hand, eyes wide open and legs almost locked from fear.

"Well-well, here we meet again, and so soon. I am honoured, your majesty." The man jumped from the branch, landing right in front of her. Lousine's only response was to step back even more, into the empty wastelands behind her. "Who are you and what do you want from us?" She asked, confident but still with a tremble in her voice. "Tell me now and I might spare your life!" 

The man chuckled audibly. He stood behind her without her even realising, making her flinch and jump backwards, to hold onto the dead tree for support. She ripped one of the branches and held it in front of her defensively, as Ayan had taught her to do. "You really do take after your mother, the queen, don't you?" The man responded, answering her question with another question. He stood still with his hands behind his back, still smiling with quite a venomous tone to his voice. "Demanding, without any right to do so. Blood will only go so far, majesty." Lousine felt chills going down her spine. She understood that this world she was in was something of the man's doing, and that he had all control here. But, that didn't mean she wouldn't try.   
  
She took a deep breath, slightly lowering the stick.   
"Answer my questions first, magician."   
  
"Very well." The man replied, smirking even more. "What is it you wish to know?" He walked to his right, in slow circles around her, like a panther in satin spying on its prey.

Lousine took a deep breath, keeping a tight eye on the man. "Who are you, what is your name?"

"My name... Is Firus. Firus Evrosim. Remember it well. I govern over the realm of sleep and dreams. As a 'wizard', as one might call it." Replied the man. He took a gracious bow, but kept his eye on Lousine. She, nevertheless, returned the gesture because it was a courteous thing to do. "Mister Evrosim... The pleasure, if I may call it that, is all mine." She replied. The man did not seem to mind the gesture, but his face became suspicious. "You have one of my kind in your gathering, do you not?" He asked, continuing his walks in circles. Lousine remained silent for a while but eventually answered. She did not want to be responsible for Albedo getting hurt.   
"We do... He is a dear friend, and a powerful man of his craft-"   
  
"And once-before the grand mage of your court, if I'm correct?" Interrupted Firus. He rubbed the ginger, goat-like beard he had under his chin and walked in a direct line towards Lousine, who once again raised the branch to keep him at a distance. His tone got all the more venomous and the closer he got, Lousine could see that the shade of his eyes had turned to a smouldering, dark-red.

"The same court that tried to have me chained, bound and beaten?"   
  
Lousine did not know how to answer to this. She'd never seen this man, and if what Firus said was true, then she wasn't present for his persecution at the time. Her unease could clearly be seen, she clenched onto the branch for dear life and Firus found this quite amusing. He disappeared once more in a faint cloud of indigo, before Lousine heard the thump of something landing on dry wood behind her.

"You don't have to answer that question, majesty. I'll exact my revenge on my own, on you and any of that spiteful family of blue-blooded rats that you have. My quaint little plan won't be discovered until it is far too late, when any help is long gone." Lousine once again turned around, raising the branch and swinging it. This did manage to startle Firus, and he leant back with an unnatural, dream-like balance. "I'm not! Done! Asking questions, mister Evrosim."

She stepped back, losing not one second of eye-contact with the slender, dangerous man. "Why do you commit these unlawful acts?" Lousine asked. "And do you think committing more will null those charges?"  
  
Firus smiled, then hopped off of the dead branch. "Well, that worked for you and your friends, didn't it?"

Lousine's tone changed, formality slowly crawled out of the window as her emotions began to take the upper-hand. "But why all those innocents? The guards, I can understand, but the lumberers? The farmers?"

"They were in my way. They were just a little too close to discovering my whereabouts. And I cannot have that. I disposed of those tin-men quite neatly, don't worry. Some, however, weren't so lucky." He once again approached, hands still behind his back, but smoke rose behind it. Dark, thundering clouds formed, and Lousine felt like the world around her was spinning, growing... The phrase 'spiteful family of blue-blooded rats' ghosted her thoughts until it grew louder, more intrusive, to the point where it overruled every other thought she could have. Seeing that manners of the court would be of no help to her where she was, she wildly swung the broken branch around inside the darkened vortex of black and purple.

"No! NO! You are WRONG, sir! I am NOT like my mother!"

She heard a loud knock, a thud, and the vortex stopped and relief slipped into her heart as she saw Firus rubbing his head with one eye closed in annoyance. He looked at her, and hissed.  
  
"We will see about that, when next we meet... Good luck trying to awaken anyone else. You'll need it, majesty." With a painful laugh, Firus was whisked away into the nothing as if he'd never been there to begin with, and the world around Lousine once again grew blurry...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double whammy, since you deserve this. Making plot is a slog, but luckily I got help. See you soon.


	4. Two Wicked Witches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albedo faces off with Firus... Or is it the other way around?

“I seriously don’t know what else we could do. We tried water, feathers and everything, and she’s still not woken up!” Ayan heaved, lightly shaking the sleeping Lousine as if it would have any effect. But she remained still, with her eyes closed and the locks around her ears. Ayan was in tears at this point. One, he’d only gotten one friend back so far! He wanted them all! Two, while carrying both of them out of the swamps wouldn’t be impossible, knowing he’d failed taking this person down really upset him. And three, IF he brought Lousine back to her house like this, her mother, queen Tangrana, would definitely have him killed.   
He slammed the ground, upset.   
His chest hurt, and his head hurt. Pretty much everything hurt when she wasn’t awake. Vuraria, who had been checking if Albedo hadn’t given any signs of consciousness yet, eventually walked over to him and sat down. Judging by her face, she too seemed upset about this. Sad, even. She definitely seemed quieter than usual.  
“Hey… I think I might have an idea.” “I’m NOT leaving them behind!” Ayan replied, slamming the ground once more. It got quite deep, there was mud on his hands now. Vuraria leaned backwards, holding her hands in front of her. “No, not that. Un-clench those fists before you hurt yourself, you goat-head.”   
Ayan took a few long, deep breaths, but did as she asked. There were still tears running down his eyes. “What now?”Vuraria shuffled to sit more comfortably, looking from Lousine to Ayan. “You know how, in stories, the princess always wakes up from, like-““An apple in her throat?”“No, you numb-skull!” Snarled Vuraria. She once again looked at Lousine, fumbling with her hands and stumbling over her words. “The princess always wakes up from poison, or death, or whatever, with, um… A kiss.” Ayan cocked his head. He didn’t hear these stories before. “Do they?” His face turned to one of unease before he clumsily leaned over her face…“Not you, you dumb idiot!” Vuraria warned him. “Let me finish. It’s mostly a kiss from a hero, true, but…” “But what?” Ayan did not get the gist at all, but sat back, letting Vuraria finish her sentence this time. He just wanted Lousine back, that was all.   
“A prince, more often than not.” Ayan frowned. “If you think I’m going to Alvea right now and get Ru-“  
“Can you let me finish?” Vuraria sighed. “Damn!” She crossed her arms and pushed Ayan out of the way. He rolled over in the clearing and Vuraria now inched closer to Lousine, uncertain in every move she made. “I know it might be breaking tradition at this point, but, who cares about tradition in a time like this? I-” She let out a short, stressful sigh. “Listen, all I thought was; Why not a kiss from a princess?” Ayan sat back up, rubbing over a sore spot. “But can’t you turn into-““For just this once, Ayan!” Vuraria replied, audibly getting annoyed by him at this point. “Just, don’t- don’t look, or whatever.” She cracked her neck, closing her eyes and moving her hair out of the way. Her heart thumped deep in her chest, not making her seem any less nervous. “It’s… Worth a try, at the very least.”She leaned in. “For just this once…”

Lousine snapped awake and tried to jolt upright, smashing her head hard against Vuraria’s. The latter of which did not see that coming at all, and fell backwards, yowling in pain with her hands covering her mouth. Ayan got up, hugging her from behind in ecstasy. “YOU’RE BACK! YOU’RE-…” He saw Vuraria and his face pulled into an uncomfortable grimace. He quickly looked at Lousine, the locks were gone, luckily, and then he raced over to Vuraria to check on her. “Hey-… On the positive side, I think it worked!” 

“Will you shut up?! My lip is bleeding! Get me a faun-damned cloth or something before I kick your ass!” 

Lousine stared blankly ahead, for all of this was a lot to take in. She pressed her fingers against her lips, certain she felt something. Then, out of the blue, her eyes grew wider, as she had forgotten one crucial thing in the dream of the bare lands, with Firus.

“I’d forgotten to ask him what his crime was in the first place.”

Poor, poor Albedo wasn’t any better off in the dream of his own. As one from a race which handled with the extraordinary and the supernatural, his dream was weird in every way one could imagine. He didn’t dream of persons, moments or places. Instead, he dreamt of shapes without form, colours that hadn’t been discovered yet and emotions not yet felt by any being alive.   
There was darkness of the cosmos around him, yet brimming with stars and a veil of indigo that gave him at least one slight familiarity. He was powerless here, and yet one with everything.   
Yet still, he saw a shape he did recognise. But it wasn’t Firus.It was his brother. But Albedo, being only a spectator in this dream, couldn’t move to him. He had no body to do it with, no legs to stand onto nothing with and no arms to grab his brother before he smiled at him and fell backwards into the void.   
Albedo screamed his brother’s name with a mouth that he didn’t have.   
Flames erupted all around him. Another familiarity, a painful one. 

A stake. A crowd. One human-shaped torch lighting up the darkness of the night. A scream that shattered Albedo’s ears and blurred his vision, with a grief-filled rage boiling within him. He saw red during the blur, but only when he’d caught his breath again and looked around did he notice there was no red on his hands, like before. No bodies on the ground, and no burnt one on the smouldering stake.   
No one was there but the pale man in the dark robe.

He stepped behind what was left of the ashen stake with a big smirk on his face, eyes glowing between red and pink in the dreamy moonlight.   
“Dream-Weaver.” Hummed Albedo, every bit of his attention focussed on the man in front of him. 

“What a beautiful nickname, for me? Aawh, you didn’t have to do that… Albedo.” The man approached. Albedo felt a shiver down his spine, but did not let it bother him. He frowned, trying to get into the man’s mind. “Firus.” He said, clear and deep. “These dreams are my own. No one, and especially not you, has the right to invade them like this.” 

Firus did not answer to this. “A loved one… A fiancé, perchance? My, my. What a tragic life you had. Whatever deity was in charge of creating you really did spit in your cauldron, didn’t they?” That sparked enough flashes of rage into Albedo that he materialised himself a fist from the space around him, with which he punched the pale, dark-robed man hard in the face. Firus did not see that coming, and instead fell backwards.   
Albedo growled at him, dead-serious.“Nobody… Will talk to me like that.” 

Firus got himself up, his eyes changing from dangerous red to venomous yellow. “Alright then, a new game it is. I will, however, give you a head-start…” He crawled onto his hands and knees, morphing into the shape of a giant, star-covered cat, still with the glowing eyes and the locks on its ears. “Say, five seconds? I’m mad about these games, you know. I love a challenge.” 

Knowing that he had hit the Dream-Weaver had given to Albedo a sliver of control. Now he knew he wasn’t powerless in the dream-world Firus had created, and he didn’t have to live through his nightmares once again. He breathed in deep, closing his eyes as he heard Firus count down in front of him. He felt the veins under his skin tingle. 

“Five… Four, three, two, o-“The sentence could not be finished soon enough. In the guise of a dragon Albedo had lurched for the giant cosmic cat and bitten down its throat, and before he could hear a crack there was only silence.   
The Dream-Weaver was nowhere to be found. And Albedo, likewise, found himself nowhere. 

“That wasn’t our agreement.” 

Albedo couldn’t move. He tensed and released every muscle in his body he could, but nothing worked. He growled in frustration as he heard the voice of the Dream-Weaver behind him once again.   
“We are of the same, you and I. We both have a powerful gift coursing through our veins. You know it, and I know it.” Firus walked around Albedo until they stood face-to-face.   
“I do feel sorry for you, you know. I could have erased those awful, awful nightmares from your conscious. And yet, you insist on treating me like this…” There was a slight mock-sadness in Firus’ voice, as he held a slender finger under Albedo’s chin and lifted up his face. The two were about the same size, but far from the same mind.   
“Cursed be your gifts! I let my nightmares fuel me! Pray tell what you’ll truly do to them!” Albedo hissed at him, mind-to-mind. He couldn’t move his mouth, but he could still speak. Wozardians like them had a way to make their thoughts known, without a spoken word. 

The Dream-Weaver leaned away from Albedo, his eyes turning a black-ish, dark-indigo.   
“Wrong answer.” 

Albedo felt weird all of a sudden. And numb, as if he wouldn’t move even if he did want to. He felt a warm flush go over his face, and he had trouble keeping his eyes open. The world around him was vague, and tinted a deep red and it smelled of dried roses. “There we go.” He heard, but he did not see Firus anywhere. Albedo struggled with all the might still left within him, but he felt too tired. He couldn’t.   
“Ah-ah-ah, don’t you do that, now.” He heard Firus say, and he could only listen. Now, he saw his face clearly in front of him. Albedo bore his teeth in what appeared to be a smile. “Curse you.” He bit through his teeth as that was the last words he could think.   
Firus once again held the finger under his face, lifting it up to look at him. “Don’t you be mean to me like that. I will burrow this in your head so it will be the only thing you can think about. I will give you this, and when I do, you will forget everything and then you can start to make me really, really happy…”   
Albedo saw a smirk grace his lips. Quick, he had to do something. One small, minuscule part of him. One part of his soul where he burrowed all his hate, all his repressed grief and the pain he couldn’t express. He hid that from Firus mentally and placed it under a spell that couldn’t be opened, just in time. Since after that he felt the whole world stand still as Firus pressed his lips gently onto his forehead. Everything he once thought, save for that little, hidden corner of hate, drained from him as Firus placed him under his will.   
“From this point on I will be with you. Now you will wake up, and you will lead your friends to their certain doom. And then… We’ll see.”The last thing Albedo heard was Firus’ faint chuckle before everything blurred and the smell of swamp got back into his nose. He lay at his side, feeling the presence of three around him. “Albedo!” He heard. “ALBEDO!”   
But Albedo grumbled and snuggled deeper against the floor. “Five more minutes…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i finished this one in wattpad first and then i forgot ao3 existed for a bit so i'll put the entire thing here  
> doubt it matters though  
> anyway here you go


	5. Gathering Storms and Cunning Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's wrong with Albedo. A battle with the Dreamweaver unfolds while the three children try to figure out the killer's motives and weaknesses.

They got him up, eventually. He was a little dazed from all that happened, but that wasn’t a surprise to any of them. All they wanted now was to find a way out, rethink their plan, and return to ‘kick this wizard-man’s ass’ as Vuraria quoted it. Lousine shared with them all she had found out about Firus, but Albedo was silent during all this. “I… I must have forgotten.” He murmured, as he held his head in his hands. “I do think we should head back.”   
They failed to sense that there was a slight purple light around Albedo’s ears. 

“Through here.” He said, as he led them through the swamps. The foliage got thicker, the air more dense and the bugs and frogs more insistent than ever. The bugs especially feasted well on them that night, tiring them out even more.   
“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Ayan asked. He looked and the sky had been darkening for a while now. “It’s true. Last time we followed your dumb faun-shit route we got drenched by the rain.” Snarled Vuraria. She was, however, more suspicious than tired. “This doesn’t look like where we’ve walked before.” “Trust me. I know where we’re going.” Albedo said, monotone and sleepy-sounding. He walked up front, the three children huddled close behind. And it was true. Albedo wasn’t leading them away from the swamp. Firus, inside of him, was luring them deeper inside. 

They came to where a tree lay half-fallen, providing some shelter. “We can either rest here, or we can go on.” Albedo said. His stance was dull and he looked much more disinterested than the three. This did make them grow more suspicious.   
“Do you… Not care about this any longer, Albedo?” Asked Lousine. She sounded very upset over this. She hastily noted everything down in a small little notebook before undoing the knot in her hair. Vuraria bumped her against the arm. “Wizard-people… They’re probably battling it out in his head or something.” Lousine’s eyes went wide, and she quickly made more notes. “Either that, OR you’re just too chicken-shit that you can’t admit that you got us lost. Again.” Vuraria continued, cockily crossing her arms and staring right at the wizard. But he did not respond. He merely stared into the swamp.   
Vuraria uncrossed her arms. Now she knew something was definitely wrong. 

Ayan on the far end of the group was getting more worried in turn as well. The fear of going back and leaving everyone here to their slumbering doom wasn’t nice. He wanted to help these people! But who knew what this evil wizard-man was planning next.  
“Do you think we have a chance?” He said, his hands trembling a bit.“Of course we do.” Vuraria replied, feeling a sneeze coming on. She waited a bit before fire shot out of her nose with a loud “AAAACHOO!”, making a cosy, albeit disgusting, campfire. “Having magic does not make this person immune to getting his ass beat… As proven.” She took the handkerchief Lousine handed to her without even looking, drying her nose. “Thanks.” It was smouldering when she gave it back. A big spot was burnt out, and still red-hot at its edges.“But he is a wizard of many gifts.” Albedo replied, still in a voice far duller than his usual self. They saw him slightly twitch as he began clenching his fists. “And a persuasive git at that. What I wouldn’t give to wrangle my hands around that pale throat of his and just…” He was still standing with his back to the three at this point. Ayan did not seem at ease. A normal Albedo would never say this. And it seemed that Vuraria and Lousine shared this sentiment with him. They all looked at each other in unease and paranoia. Vuraria signed with her hands. “Let’s jump him. He knows more than he lets on, I knew he would. Let’s make him tell the truth.”   
But now Ayan was turn between attacking his old friend, fleeing, or pursuing, and the thoughts of all three made him mad with worry. He got up almost in an instant.

“That’s it, I’m going back!-“  
“Back where, exactly?”

There Firus was again. The Dream-Weaver. Once as always dressed in his sleek dark robe, and his ginger hair setting off against the purple frills of his cloak. Ayan, Lousine and Vuraria jumped up in surprise almost immediately, while Albedo remained purely still, as if he wanted to move but he couldn’t. All this while the Dreamweaver beheld all of them with a cold, inquisitive glare. 

“This here man doesn’t understand subtlety, sadly.” Firus grumbled, tapping Albedo on the head and pushing him onto the floor without as much as a glance in his direction. Albedo lay still, eyes that were half-lidded staring into the skies.   
“But, he did as I asked. He lead you here, to me.” He chuckled and snapped his fingers in front of Albedo’s still face. He blinked. “And now you will perish, and he will watch it happen.” Ayan reached for his sword, Vuraria reached for her whip, Lousine reached for the nearest branch she could find, but the walk was long and Firus had that aura of fatigue around him that allowed them to do nothing more than to grab. Albedo seemed to come more to his senses, slowly…  
“What say… We still jump him?” Vuraria snuffed fire in-between yawns. Firus laughed, heartily, while he spread his arms and slightly tilted his head, looking towards them with the provocative grin of a fox that had a plan in mind. “You can try, dear. Not that it will do you well… Hah.” Albedo put a hand to his head as he slowly sat upright. “What… Happened?” He was dazed still, but felt that a little corner within him burnt brighter than ever. “Where are we-“ He saw the faces of the three children who looked terrified at him, and the one of his now-sworn enemy so very close… But he was still so tired and his head was so clouded that…“Albedo,” Whimpered Ayan. “Help us.” 

Vuraria was the first to strike. Her focus was off, her aim was tilted and the lashing of her whip was slow, and it hit the ground near Firus. He simply stepped to the side. The same thing he did with Ayan as the boy fired a shot of his crossbow into a nearby tree, then ran straight towards him and tripped over the leg that the Dreamweaver had stuck out for him. Now was Lousine’s turn. And she, instead, ran over to Albedo and helped him back up, slapping him in the face. But seeing his friends be embarrassed and stumbling like this had only lighted up the small corner of hatred in Albedo’s soul. He felt his heart pound with rage, his head rush with blood and his hands tremble with nerves. He gently shoved Lousine out of his way. “Gather Ayan and Vuraria and leave, your highness. I shall fight him. Go.”   
The following attack of a blazing dark inferno which trembled the earth and hit Firus, singing his shoulder, was an attack the man could not duck away from.   
Firus breathed a little heavier now, holding a hand over his ear. His coat was smouldering. “Look now, you. You’ve ruined it. It was my best one.” He flung a bolt of magic so purple it hurt everyone’s eyes towards Albedo, and he flung it so fast that the old wizard barely had time to avoid it. “Go…” Albedo once again growled between his teeth, firmly grabbing the cold wet leaves beneath him. “GO!” Lousine did just that, running now towards Ayan and Vuraria and getting them up. An idea suddenly sprung from within her mind, one her tiredness forbade her to think about before. “Your horse… Ayan, your horse! We can get out of here faster!” -“But… What about-““Albedo will be alright! He’s a good wizard! Let’s go!” Vuraria shouted. With all the power she still had within her she transformed into a dark stallion that Lousine climbed up on, and Ayan whistled through his fingers and yelled, from the top of his lungs. The birds fled and the ground trembled.“BAAAAAAAAAYOOOOOO!!!”

Firus once again turned to them, his attention now lost from the old wizard. “No-no, that wasn’t what we agreed. I would take you down right here, and then your friends, and then I would take the town… And THEN,” He breathed in. His breath was shaky. “And then I will amass those that have fallen behind me. Revenge is what I shall have. All those who have wronged me will fall beneath my feet.” He slowly approached the sheepherder, the princess and the stallion, summoning a dark ball of magic that almost lulled them into a slumber they would never awaken from…Until the galloping of hooves sounded, coming closer, from far away.   
“Now what in the hells is tha-“ The Dreamweaver interrupted himself with a very loud sneeze. His eyes got puffy and his nose got runny, his cheeks and hands turned red and he kept sneezing non-stop. The ball vanished with shudders and shakes and the four friends looked at each other in surprise. “BAYO!” Ayan yelled, sensing an opportunity. He pushed the evil wizard out of balance and yelled once again. “BAAAAAYOOOO!”   
There came his horse, his saddle still on and covered with his usual fluffy brown coat. He neighed loudly when he heard his friend’s voice. His reins dragged across the ground, carrying a broken part of the fence along with him. And Firus would not stop sneezing. Ayan jumped on his horse’s back, and grabbed the reins tight as he looked at Albedo. “There… There’s always room for more. Come back with us.” But Albedo refused. “He is weak now. I will deal with him here. You will see me in a few days. Find out what he meant while I am gone.” Ayan nodded and begrudgingly left. Vuraria and Lousine had galloped ahead already, and Ayan looked behind him once more as he saw Albedo, fists full of fizzling magic, approach the sneezing Dreamweaver. Ayan smiled to himself, and rode off. Albedo would handle this. He was the only one who really had a chance. 

“Hairs… Horse-hairs.” Ayan muttered over a glass of ale at the table. The three sat around a small round wooden table, discussing what had just happened. They were still quite a bit on edge, and covered in mud and bruises and whatnot, so the odd looks they were given were not sparse.   
“He just started sneezing. Do you think he has a condition or something?”

Vuraria dipped her cookie into her drink, not realising it had gotten soggy many moments ago. She frowned and didn’t talk. She needed to think about this without words. “I wonder what he meant…” Lousine asked herself. She stirred a small spoon into her glass of warm tea. “Amass those that have fallen… Revenge.” She tried to rake up whatever she could from her dream, and puzzle the pieces together.   
“He wants to use the sleeping people for himself, then? That would explain the locks, and what happened to Albedo. But where would he take them?” 

Lousine now looked up, her eyes ridden with fright. “I do think I know. He wants revenge on the royal family. He will attack the capital. My family-“ She covered her face with her hands, heaving. The thought of it was too much. She did not want her family to get hurt. Tyrants as they were, they were still the only family she had! Ayan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey… Hey. Albedo will handle him.” “But if he can’t?” Lousine replied, close to tears. “Where then will he go?! Once he has this village, where then will he go?!” 

“Cities. Lots of people. That’d mean lots of minions for him.” Vuraria sighed, continuing to dip. There was no cookie left and she did not mind the scalding heat on her black scaly fingers. She barely felt it, after all. “Do we wait for Albedo to come back, then?” Asked Ayan. Vuraria shook her head. “Didn’t end well for me either. He’d have an even bigger chance of dying than me. Or worse… That old man’s got an odd look in his eyes whenever he sees that other one…” Lousine put her hand on the table, huffing loudly. She’d made her choice. “We issue a nationwide warning.”   
“But wasn’t that what got him so riled-up against you, and us, in the first place?” Asked Ayan. Lousine sat down. Her eyes were once again getting wet. “But… My family. If- If I…”   
Vuraria sighed. “We just have to rest up some, then go back and beat his lanky ass.” She looked straight at Ayan. Bring Bayo with us. Him sneezing definitely gives us some advantage.” She unfurled a grin, before all three of them heard a scream from the outside. Lousine and Vuraria ran out almost immediately, but Ayan quickly chugged down his drink and slammed some coins onto the table before following them, carrying the cup of scalding milk with him. What they saw made their hearts sink and their hairs stand on end. The people that had once been asleep were now walking in a straight line out of the church, and towards the edge of the village. No matter how the other villagers tried them to stop, they did not, and they kept walking. Tired, half-lidded eyes stared at nothing as the ethereal locks from the Dreamweaver commanded them to do his bidding.

“No time to waste, then. No time to get them all out of their dream separately.” Huffed Vuraria, smoke coming out of her nose with each breath. “We go back to the swamp as soon as we can. I think I got an idea.”-“Vuraria.” Ayan said.“We put Lousine somewhere in a clearing to goad that Firus into coming out…”-“Vuraria…” Ayan whimpered in pain.“And when he does,” She slammed a fist against her open palm. “We-“-“Vuraria!” Ayan yelled. “WHAT?!” She said as she turned around to him. His hand was all red from the spilt milk, but he held it still with clenched teeth. “You forgot your milk.” 

“I… Agree, with most of it.” Lousine added as Vuraria drank her milk and Ayan quickly found something to cool his hand with. “But I have one objection. We find Albedo back either before or after this.”   
“Alive or?….” Vuraria raised an eyebrow, which was followed by a slap from Lousine. “Don’t joke about that! We don’t know what that man wants with him!” Vuraria only chuckled. “I have _some_ ideas…”   
-“I don’t wish to know. As far as we’re concerned, he’s got him turned into his own puppet. His magic is dangerous if used against people, much less ourselves!”   
Ayan nodded. “We don’t, um… Have time to look for something that can null their power, right? Maybe the dwarves have something?” Vuraria raised her shoulders. “Maybe a good hit to the head.” But Lousine shook hers. “Their magic will still be among us even if they are, well…” She shuddered. Vuraria gave Lousine an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Then we better hurry. This time, he won’t escape us this easily.” 

The swamp shuddered with strings of sudden magical attacks. Flashes of light and sparks and thunderous shocks raged across their field of battle, mage against mage, primal yet gracious and elegant yet feral. They had been fighting for who knows how long. Time was of no more use, it was merely an innocent bystander to their battle as the Dreamweaver gifted and received attacks, and so did Albedo. Some hit, some didn’t, but their energy was not endless, be it in their minds or in their bodies.  
“Given up yet?” Albedo growled as he stood, lurched over like a vicious panther, hidden between half-destroyed trees, eyeing Firus. The Dreamweaver had scratches and scrapes and his hair was wilder than it had even been before. He did no longer look like the virtuous, gracious man that had enveloped them in a delightful prison of their own mind before. Firus began to look desperate now, scared and tired. But that made him all the more dangerous. Firus flung his arm downwards, hurling a bolt of magic straight at Albedo, and it made the tree he stood behind explode. The older wizard quickly ducked away from this, onto the floor, before scampering up. He once more looked at Firus. His eyes were blood-red.   
“Far from it. And you?” What had started off for him as a simple, friendly bout, had evolved into a battle to the death. But which of the two would die, that was something only fate were to decide. Firus instead decided to once again trick Albedo with his words. Three strands of quick black lightning flew clumsily towards him, and Firus barely managed to evade all three of them. He was as smug about it as he usually was, but with a thick layer of tiredness wearing at his words. “Three misses added to the count. You’re getting rusty… You could use some oiling.” He smiled before Albedo fully hit him with the lightning.-“Fuck off.”Firus sat upright, wobbly. He put a hand to his face and squinted his eyes, showing he was in pain. “Face it, you. They are not coming back to save you. They left you here to die with me.”-“And that is just what I wanted.” Albedo snarled in return, making another crackling ball appear in his hand. He fake-threw it which made Firus duck, before he threw it for real. It hit the Dreamweaver right against the chest, and he hackled and fell face-first onto the ground. No movement. 

Albedo fell to his knees with a big, exhausted sigh. “Good…” He even cracked a smile before he began to wipe the dust and mud off of his clothes. “Now that that’s settled, time for me to go.” He tried to step, but he couldn’t move. His legs would not budge. His arms would not reach. And his head felt fuzzy. All he could do was breathe shakily as he fell backward on the moist, mossy floor. He saw a glint of Firus getting back on his feet before he felt too drowsed to rationally observe the world around him. “Nice try. You really know how to give a man a good time. Now, let me return the favour…” And the world turned purple and black.


	6. A Pale, Lucid Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albedo is gone, and Firus is caught like a rat in a trap, in his hut in the swamps. But not all is what it seems...

“Are you sure this is the right spot?” Asked Lousine. She sat in a meadow of the swamps, a few ripe pomegranates in her hand. -“Yes, I’m sure, now start singing!” Ayan whispered between the bushes. He got a hit on his head by Vuraria who sat next to him.“You dumb ox! We’re not trying to capture a unicorn again! Put away those pomegranates and DON’T SING!” She waved at Lousine from between the same bushes. Lousine only chuckled, if only for a short while. “I already wondered why you needed me to hold these.”   
-“Just put them away and, um… Do something princess-y!” Vuraria whispered. Lousine thought, quickly, took out her notebook right there and then and began reading in silence. “Eyyyyy!” Said Ayan, and the got him another slap from Vuraria. “Ssshh! I hear something!” And, indeed, something approached them.But it wasn’t Firus. Again. 

“Your Highness!” They heard. Lousine sighed in annoyance as yet another squad of the royal guard appeared at the edge of the clearing. They approached her and began asking her how she got here, if she was safe, and if she could PLEASE head back with them to the castle. They weren’t allowed to physically touch her without her say-so, so Lousine sat perfectly still, frowned, and shook her head. She devised a plan right there and then. “I am not going anywhere unless you do something for me.”   
Ayan kept his ear out for other rumbling in the bushes that could come from Firus, but Vuraria was having none of this. “We’re wasting time. Let’s get rid of these bozos and keep looking for that dumb wizard!” She began to rise from the bushes to give those guards a what-for, but Lousine raised her hand in Vuraria’s direction to stop her, giving her a wink. 

“I think we found something, Highness!” shouted the guards, as they carved a way through the reeds and stepped over the soggy puddles of the swamp. They hacked away some more and showed Lousine a path of large stones over a bubbly, dark-water moat. Behind that moat was a small island with a suspicious-looking shack, overgrown with exotic and strange flowers, and in the water flowed… Something weird. Lousine smiled at their discovery. “We are most pleased.” She said as formally as she could, but her heart jumped. They had walked for hours on end now and finally, after both slogging through swampland and listening to the guards that were sworn to protect her be insufferable heel-lickers, they found something good. But Lousine kept her heart strong, because she had hoped something like this would happen.For sometimes she would look over her shoulder, between the guards, and she would see her friends following her at a far-enough, yet safe distance, and she would smile. She waved her hand behind her back as a sign that they’d found something, and then gently tapped the guard in front of her to investigate the house.   
“Are you… Sure, Highness? With our armour and everything, we could easily slip and sink.” Stammered the guard.“But are you bound to protect me, or are you not?” Asked Lousine. And the guards up front shivered, and slowly and carefully went over the slippery stepping stones, crossing the moat, and stepping through the path between the exotic flowers, and they moved in front of the door. “Wait there.” Lousine said. She stepped over the stones herself and went over without troubles, but the guard behind her wasn’t so lucky. He slipped and fell into the dark water, and it bubbled and fizzed a deep purple while the guard screamed. The others quickly pulled Lousine to the solid earth but for the guard it was too late. There were purple bubbles until there was nothing any longer. Then, ripples appeared, and a frog crawled out of the moat and hopped around.Now that they saw that, they noticed there were an awful lot of frogs here… 

“I would say I’m impressed, dear.” said the Dreamweaver as he walked away from the wall where he’d just chained Albedo against. “There’s not many people that have tried to fight me. Even less that have survived this long, and so far, there has only been one who actually used magic against me. That would be you. Congratulations.”   
Albedo, who felt sick in his stomach from the effects of the sleeping-spell, looked at Firus with half-lidded eyes and grumbled. He was chained by his wrists with rings with iron locks, enchanted so that they would not open. They felt surprisingly soft.   
Albedo slowly got used to his bearings. Wooden walls, furniture, a cabinet with who-knows-what-kind of books, but no rugs or anything with fur here. No taxidermic animals either. The place was lit with candles which gave the place a roomy feel. It was clear, this was no dungeon. There were several jars and bottles, some empty, scattered over the table, some of the cabinet-racks, and on the counters of the closed windows. Dried plants and several other roots, leaves and petals hung on a chandelier-like contraption above the table. There was an alembic on the table itself, a cutting board and a knife, and Albedo was certain he heard the crackling and bubbling of a burning kettle somewhere on his right, beside the wall he was chained to.“An alchemist…” he muttered, his tiredness preventing him from keeping his mouth shut.   
“You noticed?” answered the Dreamweaver. “Very clever of you. Magic is not all that keeps a man afloat, you know. Plus, it keeps out that swampy air.” He chuckled as he said this and began undoing his tattered coat, tossing it into the air. Albedo watched it began to float to somewhere out of his vision. 

“That’s your fault, you know.” Firus said, noticing what Albedo was looking at. Albedo yawned. “If you hadn’t attacked me then my coat wouldn’t have been so damaged. My tailor won’t be happy with this.” Firus continued, grabbing a chair and letting his feet rest on it while he sat on the table.   
Albedo snarled, curling up his lip like an animal. “If I hadn’t, then my friends would be dead.” Firus, quite unimpressed, raised his eyebrows while keeping his face blank.   
“Darling, I would never go that far. You just made me mad back there. All I would’ve done is put them in a little sleep and leave, that’s all.”   
Albedo yawned once more and frowned. He kept quiet, but he made clear that he didn’t believe any of Firus’ words. 

“Alas,” the Dreamweaver continued. He hopped off the table and approached Albedo, giving him a smile. “ Believe what I say or not, you’ll find out who’s true soon enough.” He turned his back to Albedo who once again snarled, and Firus only chuckled at the noise.   
“Don’t be such a silly little man.”   
In full view of Albedo, Firus undid himself of his blouse, a violet, fancy-looking thing, but now also torn and scratched and muddied. He threw it into the air as well and Albedo watched it float to where the coat went. He was pale, and slender, with a small yet firm bit of ginger chest-hair that went down his chin, over his bust and down to his stomach, and a line continued downwards that was blocked by the black pants he still wore. Albedo kept quiet, but his face flushed and his eyes went wide-open. His hands twitched a little. Then Firus chuckled, and left his field of vision.   
“I’ll be off to take a bath, to wash off those bruises you gave me. I’ll be back with some tea to heal yours as well. Don’t go anywhere~”   
Firus left, and Albedo was left with a weird feeling in his stomach. He didn’t know this emotion. What did Firus mean by that? Where did he bring him, even? He heard sounds of water splash around him and pondered, that weird thing still curdling in his stomach and making his chest rise and his legs weak, wondering what Firus had in store for his friends, once they would come. And moreover, he wondered what the Dreamweaver would do to him. 

“It won’t budge!” The three remaining guards rammed against the door, and kicked it, and tried to stick their swords through it, but to no avail. There was a presence, an invisible barrier of sorts, that kept them from entering.   
“Well, if the door doesn’t work, try a different entrance!” Lousine suggested. It sounded more like a command, partly because of the facade she kept up, but also because she was getting impatient. The life of her friend was on the line, and these soldiers were of no help. She stamped her foot on the moss and sat down, crossing her arms and pouting. “Think of something. This is not what we pay you for.” 

“Ye-yes, your majesty. Of course. Our- Our apologies, your majesty.” The guards moved away from the door while one lonely frog hopped around behind them, knocking over a flower which spewed out a weird, pink vapour. Lousine, having experience with these kinds of things through being around Ayan, quickly got back up, and covered her mouth with a cloth. She tried to wave the cloud of dust away, but that only made it move faster to the guards, the very people who were sworn to protect her. “Oh no…”-“What is it, your majesty?” “Run!” But the first one had already fallen down…  
Lousine backed away from the dangerous pink cloud and made moves to retreat back over the moat. But Ayan and Vuraria already came running and stood on the other side of the moat. “We have to leave.” Lousine said. “We have to find something that can dispel magic. There is a ward on the door.” Ayan thought and looked at the faraway house and its windows while Vuraria sighed deeply and walked back. “Are you leaving?” Lousine asked.   
Vuraria shrugged as she stopped and turned around. “Nah.”   
She ran back to the moat, turned into a small dragon, grabbed Ayan by the shoulders and flew far above the moat, over the house and the swamp. Lousine stared in awe. “You two better not leave me here.” “Of course not!” Vuraria roared back. She hovered over the house and looked at Ayan. “Ready?” Ayan looked back at her, widely smiling and brimming with anticipation. He knew what she wanted them to do. “Ready!” Vuraria roared with laughter, and dived like a swan through the air, with Ayan bracing himself as they plummeted towards the roof of the house at breakneck speeds. Lousine waited and paced near the edge of the house, not wanting to go too close to the water. Vuraria and Ayan fully expected to ram through the roof, into the floor, and then fight off whatever was inside. Instead, the patching of the roof briefly gave way and crackled before a massive force pushed them back, blowing them off the roof and away from the house. Vuraria let go of Ayan in the fall and tumbled down, whereas Ayan slid off the roof, and onto the ground, strewn by flowers, toppling Lousine as he rolled over and came to a stop. “Ow!” Ayan quickly raised himself, rubbing his head and looking at Lousine. “Sorry…” He got up and helped her back up as well. “Are you okay too, Vura-“ -“Vuraria?”   
They walked around the house, but Vuraria wasn’t there. However, near the back of the house, they did see purple bubbles and dark ripples in the stagnant, mystical water…

“Vuraria! NO!” 

They ran to it as fast they could, but didn’t jump in, although Ayan tried to before Lousine stopped him. “Do you want the same fate as her?” She screamed, which slapped some sense into Ayan but not enough to keep him from weeping. He fell to his knees at the edge of the little island and grabbed his sword by the blade’s end, holding the handle above the water. “Vuraria, if you can hear me, grab onto the sword! We’re here! We got you!” Meanwhile Lousine was pacing back and forth while throwing curses and rocks at the house. “Damn that Dreamweaver. Damn his vile enchantments, damn his kidnapping and damn his sob-story about being persecuted. I’ll-“ She inhaled sharply, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her but failing. “When I get home, I’ll have him hanged for this.” 

“Won’t be necessary.” said a voice from the water. A mucous-covered frog-hand slapped itself onto the sword, and held a firm grip as it pulled itself upwards. A man-sized, black frog covered with scales dragged itself to the surface. Ayan and Lousine held their hearts clenched. “Vu-… Vuraria?”   
The black frog hopped towards them, blinked at them and then started laughing. It -or rather, she- slapped the grime and water off of her and turned back into herself before their very eyes.

“You really think some bubbly water is going to change me into a damn frog while I can do it myself?” 

“How do you feel?” Lousine asked. Vuraria only gave her a very disinterested glance. “Sick. Of him. Of this goddamn water. Of this whole fauning day.” - “Understandable.” Lousine replied, giving a relieved sigh. “I… We feared the worst just now.” Ayan cleaned the blade on the moss and then studied her closely. “Not a frog at all…” He spread his arms for a hug which Vuraria rejected. “No. Not until we beat his pathetic ass and get that old goatee-man back.” She stomped towards the front door, turning from herself into a dark-haired replica of Firus. Ayan and Lousine followed close by, wondering what her plan was.  
“Now let’s get that bastard.” 

The weird mist had vanished as they approached the door. Vuraria-Firus closed her eyes, extending her hands to touch the barrier. It glowed and hummed and zoomed dangerously, and the locks responded to this the same way. Her eyes were shut painfully tight. Ayan braced himself a distance behind her just in case this would flop and she would fall once again. Lousine made notes, mostly of Firus’ crimes. Until…   
The barrier vanished. Slow, like the line of a tide receding on a shore. Vuraria-Firus lowered her hands, turning back to herself and taking a breath of relief. “My arms hurt... But I can still take him.”   
Ayan cracked his knuckles, breathing quickly with excitement. “So can I. Let’s go!” He grabbed his crossbow and loaded it before raising his leg to kick the door in.

But they stopped. There were sounds on the other side of the door.Laughing.  
“What? W-What are they doing?” Lousine asked as they pressed their heads against the door. “Brainwashing him, probably.” Ayan replied, sounding unnerved. “We can’t let that happen.”“To Görne he will!” Vuraria hissed. Nobody would hurt their Albedo like that! “Ayan, kick that door in!”

“More tea?” Firus asked. He poured Albedo another cup and made it levitate towards him. Albedo grinned, drinking the tea. It tasted like berries, but with a little fizz. Albedo felt a tickle in his throat and gave Firus a confused look.   
-“Relax, dear.” Firus said. “That’s the healing -herbs doing their work. Look.” He gestured to his cheek where a bruise was, and it disappeared and turned to clear skin within moments. Little hairs of an unshaven beard appeared shortly after.  
“We’re on our third cup, Firus. I know how that alchemy works. Although, I use different ingredients-“ Albedo stopped for a moment to take another sip. His wrists were still bound, for safety’s sake, but he did manage to make the tea-cup float to him through magic. “What I want to know is what you really want to do with me.” 

“Pardon?”The old wizard sighed, casting his eyes downward. “If my friends indeed do not come back for me, which I doubt, what will we do in the meantime?”   
That question made Firus giggle. He put down his cup and asked;“Your life really has been filled with tragedy, has it?” Albedo remained quiet. “You’re reading my mind. I don’t like that.”   
“Worry not. I ache the same.” Firus looked Albedo directly in his eyes before he stepped forward to gently cup the old wizard’s head in his hands. Time seemed to fade and even the place around seemed blurry.   
“Cut it out.” Snarled Albedo. “First off, you tire me out with your tricks and your fighting. Second, you take me to what I perceive to be your house. Third, you treat me more like a guest than a prisoner, despite almost killing me and my friends on multiple occasions. I suspect you have different intentions with me, and I don’t feel like waiting around to find those out.” Firus’ hands prickled his face, causing him to snarl while looking directly into Firus’ eyes. They were a light-blue, whilst they were yellow just a moment ago. 

Those eyes, however, had a different glimmer to them this time. He could see empathy through them. He saw a man with a long coat dead on the floor of a palace while a woman stood over him with a fizzling hand, and a little boy beholding it all. He saw a door being slammed shut, followed by two pricks in the ears, and locks being placed in either one. He saw exile, scorn, disdain and threats. Flashes of love and flesh followed by chase-scened through hills and out of towns. Posters with the face of a man with ginger hair and locks in his ears. A swamp, which became a house. People with pitchforks and torches and dozens of burning trees. And that fire reminded him oh-so-much of his own fiancé, Historium, being burned at the stake only a week before they would be together forever…  
He saw what had turned Firus into the man staring into his eyes on this day. 

“Oh…” It was all Albedo could say. “Oh… No.” 

Firus chuckled, but only slightly, while keeping his unblinking gaze on Albedo’s. His eyes, yellow like a hawk’s, saw Firus’ turn from light to deep blue, to black, then red, with flashes of green and brown, and then more red.   
“I have seen yours… And now, you have seen mine, haven’t you?” Asked Firus, and Albedo only nodded. There was something heavy pressing on his heart -his conscience, perhaps?- and yet, it felt so light…   
“There is such a sad love, deep in your eyes.” Albedo hummed. And Firus nodded, with tears falling from them. His eyes whirled with dark pink and light blue.   
“A kind of pale jewel, open and closed…” Albedo continued. The world around him felt unimportant, not as much as the man in front of him, still holding his face.   
Firus did not let that gaze go, and he smiled so much bigger while the tear-streams found no end. “We both are no strangers to misery, my dear old man.” Albedo didn’t respond, but he felt his face get warm. “Like a tidal wave and a thunderstorm. Imagine all we could do together. All the miseries we could fix. All the revenge we could exact. All… And I mean all, I can give it to you.”   
Albedo did not respond. His mind had no words.  
The ginger-haired man with his brightly-coloured eyes stole all the words he wanted. The people he wanted revenge against had died centuries ago, but Albedo didn’t say it. The remedy to his misery, he found among his friends, but Albedo didn’t spill a word. He didn’t want to. He hadn’t felt this way about someone ever since that day before the stake. 

Firus leaned in, right next to his ear with the smile still on his face, and he whispered:“Join me.”

But Albedo had no response. The world was vague and blurry and the only thing he could hear was Firus and his heartbeat. Weird words fluttered through his head like rabid butterflies, and the only thing he did realise was that his hands were free to move. He had placed them on Firus’ slender sides without realising.   
“I did that, for you.” The younger wizard smiled, leaning his head to the right while stepping back, to look at Albedo completely. He lowered his head, chuckling at where the hands were. “Cheeky, cheeky.” His eyes whirled from a dark orange to a blood-red with strokes of pink. “Just imagine everything else I can do for you, if you let me.” Albedo didn’t see it, but he heard, that so much blood rushed to his head that he basically looked like a tomato. It made Firus giggle even more before he used only a finger to lift Albedo’s head, slightly. His beard tickled.“Close your mouth, dear. You’re letting all the bugs fly in.” Albedo blinked, with only a grunt as response. Firus laughed now, harder.   
“But, on second thought…” He leaned in, with his face. Albedo closed his eyes, letting it happen. He wanted it to.

But Firus stopped. His locks began humming and glowing a violet hue, and there was a knock on the door. “Ah, excuse me.” He turned around, leaving Albedo, who was too dazed to move or go anywhere. Firus went to open the door….  
And was greeted by that same door almost blowing in his face. It slammed loose and hit the table, knocking everything over.

Three children stood in the doorway, armed with a crossbow, a whip and a knife from the royal guard. “Leave him alone, you beast.”   
Firus had not expected this. He hadn’t noticed his locks glowing and humming until it was far too late, and know he was trapped here with these three, and a dazed old man. He started to panic, talking a step backwards from the table. “My… My alembic.” Ayan fired a shot right into the woodwork next to him. “Don’t you dare move.” Firus’ eyes, pure white from shock, quickly mixed with strands of blood-red. Now, he was at his most dangerous. “Get Albedo! Carry him out of here while I kill this faun-forsaken magic-monster-man!” Yelled Ayan as he charged his crossbow again. Vuraria rushed to do it, while Lousine moved closer to the ginger-haired wizard. “We should have done this to you a long time ago.”“You confirmed my suspicions.” Firus replied. His face was still flushed red, as was Albedo’s. His hands twitched and his eyes darted around the room to look for an opportunity. “Be careful, Lousine.” Ayan said, but she didn’t listen. She took one step closer to place the knife to his throat. Firus saw the black-haired dragon-girl haul Albedo away, and that sparked something within him. “Just keep a clear eye on him, this old man is heavy!” Vuraria huffed, almost slipping. “Just-Just wait, my cord is stuck!” Ayan said from the door-opening. Vuraria was just dragging Albedo past him and Lousine.This was Firus’ chance.   
He used one swift step back to hop over his destroyed table, wildly throw a spell into the room, push Ayan out of the way -sneezing violently as he did so- and disappear through the opening, to the swamps.   
The yelling sounded through the wooden room as Ayan raced after the Dreamweaver, but he was gone. Vanished without a trace.Inside, the room was in shambles. More broken furniture, Lousine lying on the floor and Vuraria lying on the other side, while Albedo was nowhere to be found. “What… What happened?!” Ayan yelled as he ran in. He lifted the two up, and then began looking under all the furniture. Lousine had to catch her breath, searching for the knife that was lost, as were the guards outside. “I-… He- He fired a spell at me and-“-“I pulled her out of the way.” Vuraria finished the sentence, brushing off the dust from Lousine’s dress while plucking splinters out of her own.“Did any of you get hit?” Ayan asked. He looked around the broken room. Homely as it was before, now it was but a ramshackle, broken hut. “This place sure did.”“No, luckily.” Replied Lousine. Vuraria shook her head.   
“But does that mean that…” Ayan’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open as he looked at the other two. He searched frantically under the heavy furniture until he found Albedo lying under a large case with dried plants and spices. “Albedo!” They yelled, trying to shake him awake, even throwing water from Ayan’s waterskin into the wizard’s face.   
He coughed, and he woke up, his face all red and his hands untied, but with a clear purple hue around the lobes of his ears. “Oh… No.” Lousine wept, as she hid her face with her hands. “Oh, faun-faun-faun-FAUN! This can’t be happening!” Vuraria turned around to kick more of the broken furniture to bits in frustration. “How… How are you feeling?” Ayan asked.   
Albedo needed a few moments to get to his senses. Everything, from the fight up until now, had been a blur for him. Why did his face feel so red? “I… I am not under his spell. I’m not asleep. I can feel it. It’s- It’s something else. I-“He raised his hands to look at them. He spread his fingers, balled them into fists, tried moving them one by one, but nothing worked. He saw the symbol of a lock that had been carved on the palms and on the fingertips. “I can’t use my magic anymore.”


	7. Slumber For Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group goes for one final stand-down against Firus in the city of Florins. They know what is at stake, and both of them will not go down easily. Who will win before the morning comes?

The four grabbed their belongings, counted their losses and decided to follow the slow-gathering army at a distance unseen. They left the town without telling the folks there where they were off to, else they might attract a crowd, and thus the attention of Firus. They weren’t sure where Firus was, but didn’t want to wait around the swamps to find out. Besides, following the sleeping herd might give them an idea of where the Dreamweaver would go next.   
They set up a camp where the herd was last seen, on the fields outside of town, near another village. The footsteps were fresh in the fields, and they shivered when they saw another small band of people leave the village, trailing right after them. Albedo tried to make fire appear out of his hands, to make a campfire. But nothing happened. His hands only itched. It frustrated him.“Let me handle that, old man.” Vuraria said. She used her fire-breath on it effortlessly. “You were the one that taught me, anyway.” Albedo said nothing, but he avoided looking at her. He could do nothing now. He felt void, ashamed. He gave Lousine a quick look, while she helped Ayan set up the tents. Was this how she felt as well?

None were much in the mood for conversation after they set up their camp. Ayan was making a plan by drawing lines in the sand. “We’ll follow the tracks in the ground again tomorrow. We begin at dawn. I want to lose as little time as possible if we are to get that damn wizard.”“And then we can strangle the life out of that pale bastard! Give him AND his eyes the same colour for once!” Vuraria rolled her fists against each other, to replicate what she would do to Firus when they’d find him again. “Rher-tam agirr!”   
Lousine only chuckled, because she knew what it meant. She wondered how much time Vuraria had spent with the fauns before making a few final notes and heading off to sleep.   
“I’ll take first watch.” Ayan said. “Then Vuraria, then-“ “I will do it.” Albedo hummed. “I’ve had enough sleep before you got me. I will keep watch for the night. You three go and rest.”

“Albedo-“ Ayan began, worried about his friend, worried about what the Dreamweaver might’ve done to him. But Albedo interrupted him once more. “Trust me, Ayan. Other than the removal of my magic he’s done naught to me. You three will need your rest. Go.” He hushed their concerns and waved them away, and watched as they got into their tents while he stared at the last red bits of sunlight at the bottom of the sky. Then, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, rubbing his hands against each other. They prickled.   
He held his hands open in front of him like a beggar would, half-staring at the locks on his hands and half-staring at the coming night. “There really is nothing, then?… I truly am stuck like this?” 

“It wasn’t my fault. It was a reflex, I swear.” Said a voice behind him. Albedo turned around, because he could no longer see what it was by using his mind. But he could hear it.   
There was a bright, ginger fox behind him.  
“She was in the way. She would end up the same as her mother had. I had to-…”Albedo frowned, then snarled. “Who were you aiming for?” Even though he didn’t know for certain, he was at least somewhat sure that this fox before him was Firus. He stood up and clenched his hands, gritting his teeth. “Who were you AIMING for, you son of a bitch?” 

The fox darted off as Albedo took his first steps towards it. Magical or not, Albedo still looked dangerous and threatening to pretty much anyone else.   
“Dear, listen.” Said the same voice behind him, as he felt a force toppling him to the ground. “I still mean what I said, I have no ill intent toward you or your friends. I just-“ But the fox’s breath hitched as Albedo fell onto his back, and saw how he held out his hands to defend himself before clenching them into fists once more.   
“I-… Oh no. I-I didn’t mean to-“ Albedo got up, his limbs sore. The tea Firus had given him had worn off already. He felt even angrier than he’d been before. The fox once again tried darting off but Albedo grabbed it by the tail just in time, holding it against the ground by the throat. “Do you know what you’ve subjected me to?”   
The fox squirmed and scratched, but Albedo did not let go. “I-It was only supposed to be a slight disarming spell! No- No harm done! I didn’t think it would end up taking your…-“   
-“Then what the hell would it have done to Lousine?” Albedo growled. He threw the fox away, as far as he could, and watched it scamper off in pain and fear. He stomped and kicked the ground beneath him while he waited for something else to happen. 

He snapped awake. He wasn’t even aware that he had been dreaming. He looked around him but it was still night, even though Vuraria’s dragon-fire still kept the camp alight. Then, he seemed to get it.  
“Fox.” He muttered. He once again looked at his hands and saw that they were still marked with locks on the palms and fingertips. “That goddamn Dreamweaver.”“You rang?” sounded that oh-so familiar voice before him. He stepped out of the dark into the light of the camp before Albedo had even noticed it. Albedo let out a “Hmpf.”-sound and nothing more as Firus sat on the other side of the fire.   
“Why don’t you leave?” Albedo growled. “Why won’t you leave?”

“Dear, you know that what I did wasn’t my intention.” Firus said. “I’d told you what I wanted and they attacked me, I panicked. I had to defend myself. They are not needed for me.” “That’s not what I asked.” Albedo gruffly interrupted. “Why don’t you leave us alone? Even if we go after you, we’re leagues behind where you stand. If you get what you want, what then?” 

Firus looked at the fire, then to Albedo, and sighed. He stood up, moving close to Albedo, who, in turn, stood up as well. He was angry at him, yes, but he needed answers, and he knew that in this state he was barely a challenge for the pale, ginger man. Attacking him would simply not be wise.

“All I strive for is the respect that was taken from me.” Firus said. “After that, I’ll leave. I will move back to my house in the swamps and you will not hear from me again.”   
Albedo simply frowned at him with unblinking, hawk-like eyes. Those hadn’t changed. “And then? What will you do with the people you enchanted?”   
-“Then, nothing. I will let the people go free to their homes, and I will go to mine. ‘Lest… There is something you would like to confess?”   
They locked eyes and Firus held Albedo’s hands in his. But Albedo didn’t speak. Everything he felt, all at the same time, couldn’t be described with words.   
“Can you fix this?” he said while splaying his hands. He spoke softly. What would he even say if the others woke up while this was happening?  
As if knowing his doubts, Firus chuckled, then snapped his fingers. A vague-coloured prism engulfed only them. It looked like the bubbles of soap, or the glow of or a bug’s shell in the sunlight. Albedo couldn’t feel it happening as he could before, and that made him shiver. There was something, but it wasn’t there. He still didn’t have magic. He couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t.   
-“We won’t be seen or heard. For all they know, everything in this prism doesn’t even exist.”Albedo scoffed. “I know how it works, thank you.” It made Firus chuckle once more.  
The pale man then gently went over the carvings with his own hands, observing them. His eyes went all over the rainbow with colours, some were even colours that one without magic could not see. Albedo felt it tickle. Odd and off-putting as this man was, he still wasn’t all that unpleasant. He was oddly relaxing, even. Vague, and dangerous, but so was every wizard. Firus was a victim of circumstance, he thought, and dangerous because had had no other choice. Despite how angry he’d made him, he was enthralling, in a strange, elegant way. Perhaps the two were not as different as Albedo had thought.

“Maybe. But I don’t exactly know how yet. I-“ 

Albedo’s gaze met his once again, a little longer than before. It made Firus laugh. “What are you looking at?”   
There was a feeling between the two that was unspoken and a tensity unrelieved. But all they did was stare when the world around them once again ceased to exist.  
-“I think I’m starting to understand why you let me go.” hummed Albedo, caught in the colourful oceans that were Firus’ eyes. Even when he couldn’t feel them, they were strangely beautiful. “Vixen.” He chuckled, lightly. “You are no minion of mine. I want you to be free, but I do want you.” Firus sighed. “I don’t want you to be one of hundreds. I want you to be one, but one with me. To turn ‘you’ into an ‘us’. That is all.”   
Albedo said nothing but his cheeks flushed red. ‘He feels the same’ he thought. ‘He really does’.   
“The city closest from here. That is where I will be. Those I have gathered will wait outside. Stop me there if you wish, but at least arrive. Tell nobody, and do not be followed.” said Firus.-“Why not?” asked Albedo.   
Firus shook his head, serious. “You know why. You will see once you’re there.” Everything, from the sky to the prism to Firus’ beautiful eyes, began to fade…  
“No, no!” Albedo said, out loud. His hands still itched. “You still haven’t fixed—“But he’d already woken up, truly this time. He was cold, dazed and confused and felt the skin on his fingers burn. Sick in his gut, too tired to get up, and overwhelmed about him and Firus, he took a sharp inhale, gnashing his teeth while ramming his hands full-force into the smouldering coals and ashes of the campfire. His loud scream of pain was heard even as far as the mountains of Dwarvengaze City. 

“Well, that’s one way to fix the issue, at least.” Vuraria joked as she pat the old wizard on his back. His hands were wrapped in bandages with cold rocks used for cooling between them.   
The skin on his hands had burned so badly that the carvings had come off. Not the safest way to fix it, but it was something. Besides, they had no time to lose. They had to find Firus.

“I’d rather not speak of it.” Albedo grumbled. He was awake, and he felt that his magic was back, but it was not only his hands that hurt. But that, he couldn’t say out loud. So he thought of something that was also true. Something that hurt just as much. “It reminds me too much of your father, Ayan. These burns are almost exactly like they were on the day that I couldn’t save him.” And he looked straight at the boy as he said this. Ayan walked up front, but he did look over his shoulder to his old friend. His already serious face drooped some more. Ayan did not like to talk about the death of his father. 

“Can you stop? I’ve already had a nightmare about him last night, because of you-know-that-one-wizard, and it was exactly that.” Ayan turned his head back to the road in front of them, following the trail of footsteps and dropped belongings here-and-there. It was as if the villagers were not fully controlled, but still kind-of ‘there’, begging to be found. 

“You too?” Vuraria asked, and Lousine as well. They looked at him, and Albedo, and then each-other before they explained their nightmares.   
“Being trapped.” said Lousine. -“Being forgotten.” said Vuraria.   
They were quiet for a moment before putting a hand to each other’s shoulder. “There, there.” Lousine said. Vuraria was the first to cave in. It was a short sniffle at first, but the longer she tried to hold it in the more she felt like crying. “They’re too real,” she wept. “They’re just too real! I was in that damn cave again with that skeleton in it and nobody knew who I was! Nobody! Not even any of you! Only that damn fox…” Lousine held her arm over Vuraria tighter and gave her a few pats on her arm.   
“Cave or tower, the feeling is mutual.” The grip tightened as if Lousine wrathfully tried to clench something.   
Vuraria turned her crying eyes towards her. “What do you mean?”  
Ayan once again looked over his shoulder. “He’s trying to dig into our insecurities, isn’t he?” He let out a deep, sharp exhale before looking at Albedo once more. “What about you?” But Albedo shook his head, giving another half-truth. It ached to say the real thing. “No dreams. I stayed up all night.” 

“Then I can’t wait to make that bastard slumber for good!” Ayan pounded his fists against one another. “Grind his face against the stones and break those shiny eyes of his.” “Better believe I’ll join you on that!” Vuraria added as she sniffled her last tears away. They felt piping hot, like dragon-fire. “You pin him to the floor and I’ll rip the locks right out of his pathetic little ears.” Lousine kept her head stoic and her posture straight during all this, letting only a few tears stream down her face. “But we’d better keep him alive.” Ayan and Vuraria made a low, groaning noise of complaints. Lousine shook her head, she wasn’t finished. “So we can throw him in the dungeon, that he may live the rest of his life in a cell. Cold and damp as his soul…” 

Albedo stopped dead in his tracks. There were many things he could withstand but this was not something that he wished to hear. These people, these children he’d known for years, would take away one of the most fascinating people he had met in decades, no, centuries! He despised Firus as much as they did, but he admired Firus like he had never admired a man before. His face was so conflicted between despair, betrayal and a mask of feigning apathy that he was worried it might soon crack. He held his face in his hands and stood still, looking at the ground. “Oh… No, no.” was all he muttered.“Albedo?” The three stopped, two checking back to make sure their old friend was okay, one stopping to take a breather.   
Vuraria and Lousine patted him on the arm like they’d done to each other. “Don’t worry, you can have a go at him too.”   
But Albedo just kept shaking his head. “We- We can’t.”   
-“WHAT?!” Vuraria yelled out. “He’s attacked us and left multiple people alone or for dead! He wants nothing more than-““JUSTICE is what he wants!” Albedo clenched his hands, and he immediately felt them hurt. He hissed and grit his teeth. But he wasn’t done.   
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing. These are not the people I know! When ever have we talked about torture like this?”   
Lousine was taken aback, but Vuraria quickly found a response. “Do you want a list?”   
Albedo was unshaken. “But how many times have we followed through?”   
Vuraria was quiet. But now Lousine added her part. She cleared her throat and spoke very formally, as she always did when trying to get her point across. “He is a criminal in multiple ways and he must be brought to justice.”   
“By killing him? Torturing him? Condemning him to a lifetime in a dark jail-cell?”   
-“It’s what he deserves.” Vuraria muttered under her breath as she turned around to walk back to Ayan. That made Albedo REALLY tick off. Fire escaped from his clenched hands as he shook them. Distant dark clouds began circling around and above him, in the skies, and his voice began to thunder. He was angry, and he wanted to show it the only way he knew how. 

“Your Highness, before I completely lose it, please, think this through.” Albedo said through hissing teeth. “By all you’ve already said you are seriously starting to sound like your mother.” Lousine kept quiet. Her face said it all. Shock, realisation and disbelief.   
“What happened to our idea of helping people? Helping ALL the people that we can?” His voice boomed around in the clouds above him. Lousine quickly ran to her friends, but kept a distance. Who knew what Albedo would do?“There’s some people that can’t be helped, Albedo!” Ayan yelled under the stirring, roaring wind. “Look at Ladanor! He can’t ever be saved! EVER!”  
Albedo took a few steps forwards, making Ayan finally see the threat this old wizard-man still possessed. His hawk-like eyes crackled like feral lightning and his voice was coarse and rough. They feared that, if he talked too loud, it would strike them in this very spot.  
“Do not compare Firus to that grey imbecile. I feel like HE, and you know the one I mean, CAN be saved. Do not doubt that.” “Are you- Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Vuraria yelled back. “You spent too long in that ramshackle hut of his. He tainted your brain with whatever damn toxins he fed you, didn’t he? That’s why you’ve been so vague lately, am I right?! He’s inside your head! He’s got you like a puppet on a string!” She tapped her head with her long-nailed index-finger so hard that it almost started to hurt.  
“She has a point.” Ayan nodded, mad that Albedo brought up Ladanor and mad from the nightmare he had. “How do we know he’s not controlling you still?” Albedo let the blowing winds cool him down. The dark clouds soon faded to a more dull grey. He had his moment, and now he cooled down. There was no point arguing with them any longer. “If you will not believe my words, then believe my actions. I will go there, alone.” And before they could do anything to stop him, he moved his arms in front of his face, and then uncrossed them, and with a clap of thunder he and the bad weather were fully gone. Vuraria and Ayan looked at the empty spot for a moment before they heard light sobbing come from nearby. Lousine had curled up with her head on her arms, legs raised up to her chest and sobbing ever-so gently. What Albedo said, it hurt. Was she really that much like her mother, as he said? He was old. He knew nearly everything, he had to be right. But she didn’t want it to be. 

“Hey…” Ayan spread his arms for a hug once more, and Lousine practically yanked herself from the floor to fall into his arms. He heard what Albedo said. “You’re leagues and leagues ahead of her, you’re NOT her. Not by a long shot.” He gently patted her on the back. Vuraria joined the hug from behind. “Guess we can’t wail on him.” She sounded disappointed, but also lightly scared that Albedo might return.   
“But then…” she sniffled. “What CAN we do?”   
“He will talk to him, I guess. But I don’t trust it. Something is still off about him. I say we follow their tracks and check them out. See what he really wants with him. If it’s dangerous, we knock them both out, short and simple.” Ayan said. Vuraria nodded, adding her own idea.   
“All I know is that that Dreamweaver’s got Albedo’s wrapped around his fucking finger. We have to separate their ‘link’, or something. Somehow. We’ll find something we can do to him afterwards. Maybe trap him in a dream of his own.” That made Lousine laugh through her tears, slightly. “Hopefully a dream with lots of slugs, or whatever.”   
The three laughed about it for a moment before standing up, all the while making ideas out-loud of what they’d want Firus’ dream to be filled with. They gave each other one more big group-hug.  
“Now let’s go. We have to be quick about this if we want to catch them in the act.”

Florins. A beautiful, bustling city by day, but a quiet, curfew-stricken place by night. With everyone sleeping tightly in their homes there was no better place to cause some upheaval outside. Firus had made quick work of the guards at the gates, and they fell like sheep. Sheep with locks on their ears. He commanded the sleeping army he’d amassed to stand perfectly still outside the gate, while he relaxed as he let himself in. He needed to see for himself where he would go first, to get the attention he needed. “The clock-tower. Beautiful.” He thought out-loud, looking upon the massive peak rising above every house in the city. “Perhaps this will be the only last peace I will know, depending on how this will end.”  
Albedo appeared in the square of the city. Immediately, his palms began to hurt, and he crumpled to the ground while he hissed through his teeth. He held his hands between his legs in an effort to make the hurting stop. He heard a voice from above him.

“There you are! I was right not to doubt you, dear!” 

“Firus.” Albedo sighed, biting through his teeth. He ignored the searing pain from the burn in his hands, and he stood up, looking at the clock-tower. “Good evening to you.” He beheld his hands, still burnt. No way he could fly there now. Maybe he’d have to take the ladder to the top, or…-With a poof of purple smoke he stood right behind Firus on the top of the clock-tower. He took a moment to regain his bearings. Everything felt familiar again, but Albedo just had to get used to still not-shooting magic for a while. Firus didn’t look at him. He only kept his eye on the city.“Beautiful place, this. It certainly made this tiring walk to here worth it.” Firus’ warm words formed pillows of small, sparkly clouds that floated into the night air.

-“You walked here?” 

Firus seemed to be bothered by the question. “Do you think I am some sort of tyrant that I let those under my control carry a cart with me in it, or something?” 

-“No. But what do you plan to do?” Albedo asked, joining behind him. Not in his plan, but behind his back. He -almost- felt tempted to put his hands over Firus’ shoulders. Maybe he could cool them.   
Firus allowed it to happen. A slight shock went down the pale, ginger man’s body as he felt Albedo, but did not look. He was dangerously close to the edge. Firus overlooked the entire city and from here he could still see the mass of people he’d gathered, with a small new crowd joining the ranks. His shoulders were tense, Albedo could feel that. Firus was nervous for what was about to happen. “Speak to them, the people in the city, at the break of dawn. My followers will hold them in place and I will give them my demands. Word will spread, and a compromise will come. If they comply, I will leave. And if not… Then I guess the capital is next.” He sounded dead-serious, and Albedo could tell something was wrong. 

“You don’t have to do all this to demand respect.” He said, unprovoked.

Firus let a deep, contemplative noise escape through his mouth. “Then what would you want me to do? Sitting in a cave and tending to dragons won’t bring much change to the world.” Albedo stepped back, removing his hands from Firus’ shoulders. He felt called out. Still, he wondered if his brother, the dragon, missed him at home. He probably should check if-…The older wizard gritted his teeth and roughly moved his hands back to Firus’ shoulders. He clenched them both. “Do not call me out as if I am the only one who made mistakes here.” But Firus only smiled, turning to Albedo with a coy look on his face. Albedo’s hands were still on his shoulders. “I love it when you get mad. It makes some of that rust come off.” His index-and middle-finger gently stroked past Albedo’s bristly cheek, and the older man’s mouth immediately began to drop slightly, while his grip got more loose and his eyes got glazed. Firus smiled once more. His eyes glimmered. A deep-pink glowed with specs of golden and blue. He was enjoying himself with this little conversation.But Albedo wasn’t that easily caught. His grip tightened one more time as he forced himself to look at the city-streets below him. Below them, rather. He was still here with the Dreamweaver himself. Who would know? Who would find out? Wether he’d push him off or do something else, no one would find it out until the morning came.   
“Don’t toy with me.” Albedo growled. He caught himself moving a hand of his own closer to Firus’ face in response and he quickly pulled it away, immediately feeling the burn on his palm. He once again hissed through his teeth, eyes closed. Firus beheld the spectacle in front of him. Albedo finally caved, slightly. He moved his hand not to Firus’ shoulder, but to the Firus’ hand, and he looked at him with a defeated, yet captivated sigh. 

“I am drawn to you like a moth to a flame. You mean death to me and to those I trust, and yet I cannot keep my eyes off you.”

Firus looked at the sparse lights of lanterns that were lit below them in the city. He giggled a bit when he felt Albedo’s hand hold his, and soon after he did the same. It tickled. But, Firus was kind. He closed his eyes, and he arched his head back slightly when the magic he channeled through his hands began to heal Albedo’s. That tickled too. Albedo pulled loose to look at them, but Firus gently grabbed them once more, and Albedo let him. Neither lock nor burn were left on his hands.“Would a flame do that, then?”

Albedo cracked a smile. A laugh, even. And both of them knew it was genuine. He’d squinted his eyes, even. And Firus laughed along, softly at first. They didn’t want to wake up these people before Firus’ was about to make his move, after all. But, as laughing often goes, the both of them soon were bent over cackling over what wasn’t even a joke. They were sure that the city had heard, but they didn’t care. They were wizards. What could happen that they couldn’t prevent? Them, together… No one could do anything against that.

“Say, I did happen to see that thunderstorm there in the afternoon.” Firus laughed the last bits of jest out before his expression turned serious, or rather, concerned. “You didn’t… Hurt them, did you?”   
Albedo’s changing of a giggly jovial mood to a near- angry grumpy old man-mood took only a second, maybe because he had more experience. “I would never.”   
-“Good, good.” Firus quickly added. “I-“Albedo almost immediately shifted back to an unliking, defensive stance. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that got to him, or maybe something else. Something about Firus mentioning his friends didn’t sit right with him.“Why?” He asked. “So you can attack them on your own?” He removed his hands to cross them. They didn’t hurt anymore. Firus stepped back, his hands in front of him to defend and to shake no. “Not that! I understand they mean a lot to you! Dangerous as they are…” Albedo grinned as the memory of the burn, the locks, and being trapped in the dream and in Firus’ house nestled fresh in his mind. “Hurt them again and I will-“   
-“I won’t! I told you already! You came here alone, after all, and that is all that I asked! I am here for you, and not for them.” Firus placed his hands on Albedo’s upper arms, in an effort to un-cross them. It didn’t work… For a while, at least. “You came here for me.” Albedo couldn’t help but not. It was true. “I came here for you.”   
-“And I made a bet with myself that it was you who made that thunderstorm.” Firus continued. Now Albedo’s curiosity won over his growing and receding mistrust. “What… What did you bet with?”Now the corners of Firus’ lips curled. Albedo saw his eyes swirl with a mixture of playful, cheerful bright-blue and green, but with a big flushing underline of purple and pink behind them. Soon, that morbid curiosity outgrew Albedo’s increasing paranoia over what Firus would do. “What did you bet on?” He repeated, a little shake stuck in his voice.  
“A kiss.” Firus smiled even wider. Albedo had slowly let his arms droop, and before he knew it he and Firus once again held hands. Albedo had no words. And Firus had even less. Why waste words on what was happening, right now, in front of them?   
Firus tilted his head. His face was flushed in the moonlight, as Albedo could see. But he felt that his own glowed about the same. As were their eyes. The golden hawk-like eyes of Albedo were tied in a battle of affection with the ever-colour-shifting pupils of Firus. And that made Firus laugh. Both of them felt intertwined with the other, inseparable but both suspicious. Yet, what would be wrong with a kiss?  
They slowly, slowly inched closer, the only things audible being the waving of the wind, the twinkle of the stars and the booming in their hearts. 

“Go, be sneaky!” Ayan egged on. Vuraria had enough of Ayan’s ridiculous plans, however, and pushed his face out of the way. “First with the unicorn and now this? You’re better off leaving this to me.” She stomped past the army of sleeping slaves, that remained unconscious and almost limp. She turn turned into a spider and climbed up the castle-walls, unseen. It took long, for she was a small spider. Ayan and Lousine watched, from the other side of the walls. Firus had left the door open. Once Vuraria eventually jumped down from the walls, Ayan and Lousine were already there, and they chuckled tiredly as Vuraria looked around in confusion. “How’d you two get here?” -“The front door.” Lousine said. “But we have no time to waste. We have to find Albedo and deal with-““Found them.” Ayan pointed at two silhouettes on the top of the bell-tower. 

They sneaked through the streets, keeping to the shadows to not be seen. They needed to get closer to see what the two wizards were up to. They arrived at the door of the house that was closest to the bell-tower, but still on the other end of an empty city-square. They could see the two there clearly, gleaming with something magic around them in the pale moonlight.   
Ayan gave the two a quick glance. “I have no idea what they’re doing. If we come any closer they’ll see us.” Lousine shook her head. “I beg to disagree.” From a hidden satchel in her dress she took a cold, iron cylinder. “My spyglass will do the trick.” She placed the thing to her eye and looked through it at the bell-tower. Her jaw dropped. “What? What are they doing?” Vuraria asked. She got no response.   
Instead, Lousine handed the spyglass over to her friend while her eye remained on those two silhouettes. Her eyes were wide-open and she looked shocked and pale. Ayan quickly sneaked over to her to try and get some sense back into her. “What’s so horrible that he’d be doing to him? Is he eating him alive or something?” Scared of his own words, Ayan quickly took out his crossbow and loaded the first bolt into it. He aimed it at the top.  
“Ayan, I think it’s even worse.” Lousine said, full of concern. Her hands started to tremble and she almost shook to hard that the rattle of the necklace she wore was very audible through the open square. But no response came from the two people up above. Vuraria then looked through the spyglass while Ayan tried his best to get both Lousine calmed down, and his crossbow loaded.   
What she saw caused her to roughly push the glass back into Lousine’s hands in surprise and horrible disgust.“AH, WHAT THE F-“But even a hand over her mouth couldn’t stop what would happen next.   
“He’s eating Albedo’s fucking soul!” 

They were enveloped in a hue, an almost-crystal ball that surrounded them, of their own making. They, Albedo and Firus, together. The round shield of magic twinkled from the inside as much as they did. They had closed their eyes to feel every twitch, every shiver and lick and tremble of the other. Their thoughts and their minds were like one within their own cozy crystal bubble.   
In here, they could feel the heartbeat of the universe. Albedo felt something he’d never felt in his life. Here, with Firus. Albedo was at peace. He felt like he discovered a part of himself he had abandoned, locked and forgotten. And he thought, or knew, that Firus felt the same. He certainly did feel like it.   
He’d never seen someone act so passionately since… No, that was too far back. Now, he didn’t want to think. He wanted to feel.   
Feel Firus. 

Vuraria shook her fists in anger and anticipation. “Quick, then! Load the fucking crossbow or I’ll fly up there and-“ No one would take Albedo from them that easily. Not their Albedo! She was out for blood. Wizard’s blood, rather. “Our suspicions were true. They were absolutely true. Firus is using Albedo for whatever reason we don’t know… He’s too dangerous to be left alive.” Lousine muttered under her breath, pencil and notebook in her hands.  
Ayan’s shaking hands pulled back the string of the crossbow but his nerves overflowed his movement, he couldn’t get it in the right place. “You complete… Give me that!” Lousine pulled the string back and then went back to furiously making notes. Her eye was on the weird glow on the tower. The wizards. It was the only thing that kept her from screaming at this point. Ayan loaded the bolt, aimed the crossbow, and whimpered. His finger was tight on the hard-wooden trigger. “L-Let’s hope I don’t miss…” - “You better not.” Vuraria warned him, seething. “Or I’ll throw you off that tower after him.”

The two let go, finally gasping for air. Their connection severed, and their crystal ball started shimmering and fading away.“Well…” Firus asked, out of breath and with the reddest face one could have at a time like this. His eyes were a twinkling pink. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”  
Albedo had no response but a smile. But he had a need. He wanted more. He leaned in to get it, yet Firus leaned back, pressing a gentle finger to Albedo’s lips. The tips tickled against the unshaven beard.   
“Firus… What then is it you want with me?” Albedo asked. The Dreamweaver stared one final time into Albedo’s eyes, then gulped and cast them downward, closed. “I think you know…”-“That’s just it. I don’t. Be clear about what you want or I can never help you.” The protective and twinkling barrier was as good as gone now, leaving the two of them exposed to the cold night air again . Firus raised his shoulders and began moving his hands a bit too much. But he had to express how he felt. “If you think I’m abandoning the old idea then you are mistaken. I still want that respect they owe me.” Albedo, still not satisfied with this answer, now placed his own hand to the end of Firus’ ginger-ish goatee. “I care not what you want with these people anymore. What is it you want with me?”   
“I-…” Firus began, but didn’t finish. “I… I just want you. I want you, and-“ He blinked. He saw something zooming their way.And he only had seconds to spare to push the bolt out of their way with a gust of wind. Albedo’s breath stoked. “Oh no.” 

Firus now saw them clearly, with eagle-sharp eyes. Three ant-sized people, shivering like sheep. He saw one of them load another bolt, but one of them walked away. He was too busy feeling betrayed to wonder what they would do. “You said you would come here alone.” -“I did come here alone!” Albedo called back. “They just decided to follow me!” Firus raised an unbelieving eyebrow. His eyes had glazed over to a dark red. “Something tells me you just made that up to catch me unawares. Catch me in the act. At my weakest point…” He rubbed his hands together as if he had a scheme himself. A threatening hue, how of dark purple with sharp, black shards appeared around him. He stood perfectly still. “My doubts were correct, my gut was right. You’re only here to eliminate the monster, after all.” “That is not why I am here!” Albedo loudly and slowly exclaimed. He took steps back, careful not to lose his footing. “When will you get that through your head?! I came here because I have feelings for you, damnit!” For only a swift moment, Firus’ head once again went pink, then dark-red. Eyes wide, hands slightly drooped. But he pushed that feeling out of him and slightly craned his head. His eyes quickly turned the darkest of blue.“I will no longer believe that lie. I think it’s time to take this place by force instead… After I deal with you and that little group of yours.”   
Albedo took steps back until he felt the cold stone against the back of his legs. His hairs stood straight up, both in fear and betrayal of his own. Firus, whom he’d now only realised he felt something for, the first person he felt this for in years, was now trying to kill them, for real this time. He felt numb. Wide awake, yet trapped in a nightmare.   
Firus twisted his hand to a shape that’d look like he held a wineglass. The needle-sharp shards all turned towards Albedo. “Goodnight to you. I won’t forget what we did.” An arrow drilled itself into his sleeve, breaking through the shards and the hue and forcing Firus against the wall of the tower. Right after, a black apparition zoomed through the air to slam Firus against the ground. His coat got ripped in the process. Vuraria appeared, with hair wild like a fire, scales and fangs sharp as nails and leathery wings black as night. She raised a sharp palm to the deadly, shard-filled hue, making it shatter and disappear. Albedo felt his breath hitch in his throat. Vuraria gave him a quick grin before turning back to the Dreamweaver, the source of their trouble.“Like hell you won’t.”

Firus was dazed at first. The hit on his head against the stone made him dizzy. His ears began ringing and the glow on his locks intensified. “That… That was my only coat.” He took a deep breath as if he wanted to make himself seem bigger. Then, with a burst of energy that came from all around him, a massive shockwave spread, toppling both Albedo and Vuraria off the building. The ground was far away, but it came closer, and closer…   
Vuraria regained the control over her wings just fine, but she saw Albedo on the left of the tower topple and fall, and do nothing. “HEY!” She yelled, but there was no response from him. She flew over as quick as she could, and at breakneck speeds she caught him right by the collar of his coat. They zoomed further through the air, with Vuraria turning herself more into a dragon to fly faster. Vuraria dropped Albedo at the top once again, and he rolled over the floor, almost limp. “Albedo? Are you okay?” Vuraria asked. Now she was getting worried. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to turn into a dragon. You were the one that taught me, Görne-damnit!” Albedo kept staring at the sky, but his mouth hung open. A shaking right hand pointed at the edge of the tower. Vuraria got it. “Firus.” This made her even angrier. “You’re paralysed. He trapped you in something again. A lucid nightmare or whatever. I’m not going to let him get away with-… Where is he?” He was nowhere on the tower, not anymore. Instead, he’d slid down the tiles and jumped like an acrobat to land slowly, gracefully, on the cold street-floors. There was a fire in his eyes. A feral, golden-yellow glow. He breathed in, tensing and then easing the muscles in his neck and shoulders before heading to the next course of action; The children. Ayan and Lousine had kept hidden in a corridor where Firus couldn’t see them… They hoped. Ayan held a finger to his mouth and showed it to Lousine. He aimed his loaded crossbow. “Ssh… One good shot, and-“  
He held a hand to where his coat had been ripped, and looked around the square. “Hidden in the shadows like little rats. Pff.. Wouldn’t your parents be proud?”   
That struck a chord. And not a nice one. That one phrase burrowed itself like a worm into their minds, and Ayan, especially, got so fired-up that be pushed the crossbow into Lousine’s hands, unsheathed his sword and ran forward. Firus then saw the gleam of the iron thing in the dark. “Aha. There you are.” He fired a bolt of concentrated, raw hate towards the corridor, and some stones cracked and crumbled. Lousine almost screamed. Almost. 

Ayan rushed forward, slightly hunched over and sword at the ready. He yelled, loudly. He didn’t care if the people here were asleep. He didn’t care that he couldn’t think straight from lack of sleep. He didn’t care that he could almost fall over from exhaustion. All he cared about now was killing that evil, evil wizard in front of him. Ayan swung his sword, trying to hit a weak spot. Neck, shoulder, hip, stomach, anything. But no matter the blow, Firus would move out of the way just in time, and his cape flew gracefully along with him, almost seeming to sparkle like stars. It made Ayan drowsy.   
“Swing and a miss!” But that made him mad. Ayan got mad at himself for losing all of this so far, for Firus turning one of his best friends into a mindless slave, mad at himself for being tired. It was brute rage and revenge that kept him awake. And that gave him all the energy he needed to finally land a blow on the Dreamweaver that he’d grown to resent.  
A cut through the arm. Firus hissed and then yowled, placing a hand on his wound to heal it in mere moments. Ayan stared, mouth agape and breathing like a raging, frothing boar. “That’s not fair!” He yelled. “That’s just not fair!” With one final yell, where he felt like his throat would crack, Ayan raised the sword above his head and let it race down to Firus’ head with all the force he still had left within him. Firus blocked the sword with his hand, covered in a purple hue. He heavily struggled against the weight, but Ayan could not bring it down any further than he did now. And that blow would now be nowhere near as fatal. Ayan tried, and he tried so hard, to swing it downwards again as he just did, but Firus would block those too. Even yelling as he slashed did nothing. The streets echoed.These attempts made Firus chuckle. It wasn’t the nice kind of chuckle, just as Ayan expected. “You sure do know how to hit, Ayan. But it’s no use trying. If only you were a little older…” He still had that feral glint in his eyes and Ayan almost started crying from how unfair he found this, and how confused he was. It earned him another chuckle. “Don’t cry now. I’ll make this painless.” Firus pushed the sword away, and Ayan tumbled backwards. He tried to scramble back up, but could barely lift his arms. There was no breath left in his lungs and his legs felt like unmoving, cracked stones. He couldn’t even raise his head at his enemy.  
“There we go. Now hold still.” Once more did he raise his hand. Another magic orb formed in Firus’ hand. Ayan felt its light sting in his eyes. He looked at Firus’ hateful face instead. There was a sour, tired grin on there. His pose wasn’t firmly straight, but kind-of hunched, and there was sweat and dirt pouring and staining his pale face. He could still get tired like a normal man. And those eyes…“What… What did you do to him?…” Ayan wheezed. He reached a final time for his sword but Firus pressed down on his foot.“Don’t bother. You’ll be seeing him soon.” The Dreamweaver raised the orb…And got it shot right out of his hand. The orb fizzled away and Firus knelt down in pain. Ayan could barely keep his head up to see the bolt take a chunk out of Firus’ hand. It bled everywhere and Ayan smiled, being glad Firus could at least still be harmed. He let his head thump to the floor that he could barely feel. He dozed off. He had nothing left in him. His part was done. Firus whimpered as he tried as fast as possible to heal the chunk of missing flesh from the side. His right hand hurt immensely, blood dripped and flew like a stream and Firus hurried to undo the protective, unfeeling layer around his left hand. He got it done just in time. It took precious time, and he already felt faint when it finally stopped bleeding, but he still lived. “That… Hurt.” He balled the hand that was still intact to a fist around the broken one, and left Ayan for what he was in the square. His eyes, gleaming both with the colours of a rainbow and with the gaze of a predator-bird glimmering between them, scoured where the bolt would have been shot from. He got his answer. Right by the tip of his ear shot another. That gave him a loud ring. It scraped against the lock. That made him crumble to the ground in pain.“Stop that…” He snarled. growing more and more angry at the mysterious shooter. “Stop it!” There was one more bolt that sped towards him. It scraped his ankle. More horrid pain. He hopped around on one leg while constantly switching what part of his body he would heal. Hand, ear, ankle. It was excruciating. The pain in his ankle wouldn’t stop and the high ringing in his ear wouldn’t either.  
But there, in the shadows, he saw the gleam of a metal tip and of jewellery. And then, he began laughing.“The little princess, heir to the throne of Tangrana the Tyrannical. At least you can fire a shot better than your friend there. Doesn’t it feel good to follow in your mother’s footsteps, exactly like I’d expected you to?” But Lousine did not cry, or rage, or shoot another bolt. She stood upright, and firm and fierce, while keeping the crossbow aimed at Firus’ heart. If he had one, she thought. Firus still kept shifting to heal each aching part. “I am merely protecting my friends and doing justice. You, my good sir, are creating a whole lot more enemies. Respect will get you nowhere when you have so many enemies.” Firus growled, very much like Albedo would’ve done, as he pushed a hand to his ear. His locks buzzed with violet light. “There simply is no talking to you, ‘Highness’.” Lousine shook her head, slowly, keeping her eye on the Dreamweaver with every move he made. “Yet you are the one who refuses to listen.”   
Her finger was on the trigger before she suddenly stopped, looking behind Firus. Past his arm, into the street. “Is that…” Firus did not seem to fall for that little trick. Strands of fast, crackling purple magic zapped out of his fingers and into the corridor where Lousine hid. She ducked, and laughed while doing it. “Why-… What is so funny?” Firus sneered. “Don’t think you can defeat me with only some bolts and some wits, princess.” “I know that.” Lousine laughed. “That is why three know more than two.”

The giant black cat landing right on top of Firus didn’t give him much time to think of a comeback.

Vuraria once again toppled Firus to the floor, and her sharp, scratching claws did the rest. Firus had his face almost torn open to the muscle before he could finally throw her off. A big black leopard rolled around on the square and then stood in front of Lousine protectively, baring teeth. “Grr.”“And there we have the second-biggest nuisance!” Firus cried out, one hand over his bleeding eye and the other on his ear. His face had so many red lines that a ball of yarn paled in comparison.   
“One trip to dream-land is more than suitable for the two of you!” He removed the hand on his ear and aimed it towards them, twirling it in circles as a vortex of violet wisps sprouted from his fingertips like lavender branches. The wisps quickly began to approach the two.“Lousine, get behind me.” Vuraria warned.  
Lousine nodded, unseen, and aimed the crossbow at Firus’ magical hand. A bolt was shot, but blocked and dropped before the vortex. “Don’t try it. You’re not getting away this time. And now that I mention it-… I might’ve forgot one crucial thing.” He removed the hand from over his eye -it looked less bloody by now- and raised it high into the air. There was a faint ringing they heard, and soon after, they heard footsteps. But not from behind Firus. They came from behind the princesses. All the noise had gathered them an audience.This managed to catch him unawares. He had forgotten about his initial plan before, to gain respect, and all he wanted now was to kill, to have revenge. Firus shuffled in his step but eventually lowered his raised arm, clasping the buzzing lock. He looked in pain still, and they weren’t sure if his power was receding or if it was at its peak.   
But they had no choice but to stop him from growing even more powerful. Vuraria lunged to the side to bite Firus again, but got caught by the wisps. They flew through her skin and for a moment her open eyes flushed with every colour a person could see. Then, she collapsed, rolling limply to the floor. Lousine’s breath stoked, she felt frozen solid to the ground, unable to move. Both Vuraria and the crossbow, her only ways of defending herself, had now proven obsolete. She felt her face grow pale and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she knew that rushing to Vuraria would only end in Firus’ magic hitting her too.  
Her hand dropped, and with it she felt a piece of cold steel hanging on her belt. The dagger.  
“Ayan…”   
By now the people behind her were getting rowdy and aware of the danger going on. They left their houses after hearing the noise happening outside, and they held torches, hammers, knives; practically anything they could get their hands on to fend off the danger.   
Florins, as a city, was big an influential, and close enough to the capital for them to recognise the lady before them. Princess Lousine looked over her shoulder, and they looked at her.   
She took a deep breath. What she was about to do hurt, but she had to do it.She had to keep everyone safe.  
“People of Florins, people of Phantasia… I declare this man a threat, a terrorist and a public enemy. Apprehend him.” She spoke in a grounded voice, and yet sounded a tad bit unsure of herself. But apprehend him they did. They approached with their flaming torches and sharp knives.The Dreamweaver’s eyes widened. Firus held his one hand stretched out, he was frightened and alone. “No… Stay- Stay back! I’m warning you!” He slashed his hand as if the wisps would stop people. But the further back he got, the more the violet magic followed him. It didn’t extend, he hadn’t the power for it!  
Firus, wide-eyed and breathing quickly, shuttered his eyes and cranked his head backwards. A cruel, wicked smile cracked onto his face as he did and felt… Something. Help was coming. For him.   
There were the people he’d gathered over the course of these days. Those that he had amassed, those with the glazed-over eyes and with the ethereal locks in their ears. Those that were caught by the Dreamweaver and that hadn’t escaped. Lousine’s eyes went to the panther on the ground, and her fear overrode her strong-seeming pose. “No… No- no no no, not- Not you too!” Firus laughed. A gritty yet elegant laugh, riddled with hate and malicious intent. As the people shuffled past them, he kept laughing. One snap of his fingers and the enthralled people stopped as one, surrounding the Dreamweaver. “You wouldn’t dare…” he taunted, spreading his arms wide as if to invite the city-folk to advance. His eyes flashed with the colours of fire. Hate. “You wouldn’t dare kill one of your own kin, would you?! Go ahead! Show them who the monster is here, your Highness!” Lousine’s brow furrowed but if her thoughts were words, all she would do was scream. People were at her command and she didn’t want it. But she needed to. And regardless of how conflicted she felt over him, over replacing her mother and him taking Albedo, Ayan and now Vuraria too from him, she still wanted no blood to be spilt. No people to bury. No more misery. She would not end up like her mother. But she had to make him see that as well.  
“Firus…” she said, addressing him, and not her servants. “Please, reconsider. Doing this won’t bring anyone back.” She lowered her crossbow, putting it on the ground, that he could clearly see. And he did seem to shift in his face. No more smile. That crumbled away, and he looked… Almost as conflicted as her.   
“Let the people go, Firus. Let them go back to their families. You have made your point. You have our full attention now. Say what you wish to say.”   
And Firus stood there, with his arms spread and the look of utter shock struck on his face. His eyes flushed, a nervous green-yellow, a warning-colour. Panic spread within him. He was nailed to the floor with people around him from all sides. Seen. Trapped. Words and movement evaded him, as if they too were scared. Of him. He lowered his arms, and his head, and his hands, and looked at them. “What… What have I-“

Lousine smiled, slightly. But her eye was still on Vuraria. There was some movement, but she wasn’t sure what it was.“What do you want us to do, Highness?” asked one of the city-folk. She gently raised her hand to silence them. “Nothing still.” When she looked back to Firus, he’d all but crumpled, silently looking at himself while muttering something none could understand. Those caught under the Dreamweaver’s spell seemed to shift. They moved more lucidly. The light somewhat returned into their eyes.“See, Firus?” Lousine said. “This is what Albedo would want.” 

“He absolutely would not.” Firus said. He had a voice laced with acid and a tear-broken throat. His eyes glowed an ember-red, and he began to scream. Magic began crackling in the palms of his hands and before Lousine could fathom what happened Firus ran towards her. “TAKE THEM BACK! TAKE THOSE WORDS BACK!” Lousine jumped back, and the people panicked. She could barely breathe, let alone scream, but the people rushed forwards to attack Firus. They felt threatened by the Dreamweaver and they, despite having no magic, defended themselves. But Firus knocked them out of the way with a single blast of pure, raw force, and continued stomping forward towards Lousine.Now, she was powerless. Neither her words nor one weapon did work. The crossbow was on the ground, away from her, and her friends were either asleep, or worse, dead. She felt the handle of the dagger on her belt and held it in front of her just as Firus, with a face filled with streaming tears, raised his arm to throw a dark ball of magic at her. “VURARIA!”

“Yes, yes… What-“ That sound, coming from behind, caught Firus off guard right at the last tick of the clock. The bolt of magic landed right under Loudine’s arm, and that half of the dress was now ruined. But, her arm didn’t hurt. She’d escaped death by the skin of her teeth. She gripped the handle tight, seeing a gap, a flaw in Firus’ attack. He was open fully.   
Quickly, she rammed with her full weight against him while jamming the dagger into his side. Firus gasped, inhaling sharply and toppling over in pain just as Lousine ran over to Vuraria.She’d woken up.  
“You could’ve been a little quieter, you know?“I-I thought you were… How did you-?” Lousine had no words. Someone was back! With a loss of control she gave her friend the biggest hug she could as Firus hissed on the floor behind them. Vuraria rubbed her eyes and yawned, lightly patting Lousine on her face before standing up. She stretched and looked at Firus whimpering on the floor. The city-folk were already rising as well. It was only wind and force that threw them to the ground, while Vuraria got hit with the sleeping-magic directly. Lousine stammered. “But- But how, how did you…”  
Vuraria shrugged the question off before getting up, with help from Lousine. “Thanks. But trust me, if I knew how, I would’ve told you already. I guess he’s less powerful when he’s hurt.” Lousine perked up when she heard the sound of what seemed to be blood being clotted and flesh being knit. Firus was healing himself again. 

“That son of-…” Vuraria growled. She stomped over to him to make an end to the wizard when Lousine caught her by the arm. “Not a good idea.”-“Why not? He’s dangerous, let’s end him here before he bites us in the ass!” Vuraria retaliated, still being stopped from approaching by Lousine. “Hey!”   
Lousine sighed deep, and gestured with her thumb over her shoulder. Ayan was still there, lying on his back on the cold ground. Lousine could see Vuraria’s eyes go wide.   
“Change of plans, Lousine. You keep him there. I’m going to Ayan.”The shape-shifter pulled herself loose from the princess and ran over to the unconscious boy on the floor. Now Lousine could go back to business. She cracked her knuckles and held the dagger ready in her hand. It had gotten warm from the blood. 

She approached Firus as he lay still on the ground. She stood behind him with the dagger firmly pointed, and spoke to him as she did before. Yet now, she felt like she once again had control. “I know you’re feigning defeat. Kneel.”  
Firus did not protest. He’d seen the people rise up again around him. They would kill him at Lousine’s command at any second now. He kneeled and put his hands on the ground. “Much like your mother again, I see.”Lousine shrugged that comment off. “That joke is getting old. Firus.”-“Much like your mother.” Firus replied. That did earn him some stifled laughs from the crowd, and even Lousine couldn’t help but crack a smile at it. “Listen, I-“ But she giggled before she could finish.  
“What would you like us do, your Highness?” asked one of the city-folk, holding a meat cleaver.   
Lousine looked around, at her people, at the mass of slightly-awakened people behind them, at Firus and at Vuraria.   
“Seize him, keep his servants tied. But do not hurt him. The court shall give him his sentence.” 

Vuraria, meanwhile, had knelt besides Ayan and tried to see what could aid him. She silently thanked whatever deity was above them that Ayan hadn’t been caught by the Dreamweaver yet again. She could barely fathom what happened when she got hit the second time herself. A vague mess of flying things, eyes, blurry colours and screams. Lots of screams. It felt as if Firus himself was not trying to trap her, but instead send a message. A cry for help. “Whatever. In a little bit he’ll be dead anyway.” 

But there was still no sign that Ayan would wake up soon, and that really began to worry her. She didn’t know what to do. He was breathing, yes, but he looked utterly exhausted. Pale, parched, sleepless.  
Lifeless, almost.

And that scared her.She placed her hands on Ayan’s chest and she breathed, slow yet shaking. She had one last plan. She was about to attempt something that she had never ever done before. “Please… May whatever I’ve learned from that old prick not fail me now.”She concentrated. She let all sound, all sight, all smell and all taste abandon her as all she could now do, was feel. The rush of the wind above, the trembling of the earth beneath and the slow, rhythmic heartbeat of her, and Ayan. She calmed herself, steadily, steadily, until both their heartbeats were as one. Then, and this was the hardest part, she tensed and eased herself, as she offered whatever energy she had, life, that she could spare. It traveled through her arms, like veins, and she felt it sink through her fingers and reach into Ayan. She did this for longer, but for how long, she didn’t know. She was numbed to the outside world. All she needed to feel, for this to work, was her, and the earth, and Ayan. But even as she felt faint, she realised that this would not be energy enough. His heartbeat was still slow. Ayan would not move like this.She needed to do something else. 

She needed to reach into the outside world. And so she did. And she was so, so grateful for Albedo, who’d taught her all this. Old, reluctant Albedo. She wondered-No, she needed to be focussed. She would help Albedo later. She inhaled once more, a breath through sharp teeth. And then she gathered the energy that came towards her. She became as if one with the world. The wind, the water on the ground, the earth under her, and the fire in the moon and her own breath. And, slowly, steadily, through shaking arms and trembling hands and clenching fingers, as she siphoned from the earth to bring back Ayan, _her_ Ayan, it worked. His heart began to beat faster. 

Breathe in. Feel the elements. Breathe out. Channel the elements.She smiled, she could feel herself smile. Her heart began to beat as fast as his, and right as she could feel it begin to hurt, to overflow, she regained control. She snapped back into consciousness and ripped her hands off of him. He gasped, opening his eyes. His entire body suddenly, as if by lightning, was brought back to life. Refilled to the brim with vigour and energy. Ayan caught his breath, and so did she. “Ayan…-“ She said, heaving. She looked at him. He was surprised, yes, and drenched, but he was alive. They were alive. She reached out for a hug before he had time to react, and he accepted. “Where’s… Where’s Albedo?” He asked as they let go after.“Up in the tower.” Vuraria rubbed her arms, they burned, almost. Like overheating cables. “Don’t worry about him, I’ll take him here. They’re bringing that ginger ear-lock-loser to the dungeons later, probably.” Her tone got serious again. “And then we’d better get out of here too. Look.” She pointed to the enchanted crowd that Firus had amassed, standing still with vague expressions. “Won’t be long before the guards will be called. And, this close to the city? We’ll rot in those dungeons, just like him!” She stood up and tried rubbing the aches out of her legs. 

“Wrong, wrong, wrong…” Ayan grumbled. He sat up, taking a moment to regain his strengths. His whole body buzzed and tingled with renewed energy. He barely had any aches, but his head felt a little scrambled. “He’ll rot in hell.”   
He grabbed his sword from the ground, wondering where his crossbow went. “Dungeon or not, those people will remain caught in that spell until we free them ourselves, which will take years, or…” He growled, cracking his knuckles.“Ayan…” Vuraria sighed to him. “We’ve already had enough trouble. Don’t make it worse.” “Says you.” Ayan replied. He was too angry still to let this go. “To get rid of a spell the most common cure is to get rid of the source. And I will.”“Ayan!-“ Vuraria called out again. But it was too late. He’d ran off again, and she sighed, disappointed. “Here we go.” 

Firus, in the meantime, had only turned into more of a whimpering mess.   
“I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to be persecuted again. I just- I… I wanted to be understood.“   
Lousine was the only one he would, and could, talk to. She’d ordered the folk of the city to gently lead the sleepwalking army to one point and to guard them there. “You attacked us, ensnared us with your magic, planned a revolt against the royal house, and terrorised the north of Phantasia with your presence alone. I don’t think there is much room for understanding left.”  
“I did not mean it!” Firus called out. “I did not mean to really harm anyone!” Lousine, however, was still not impressed. “Then, what did you do to Albedo?“

There it was again. That sudden tinge of shame, followed by a force of anger he tried to keep hidden but failed so hard in. “Leave him out of this! You have no idea of what he means to me!”-“Neither do you know what he means to us, Firus.” He was quiet after that. It was true. He’d known Albedo only for a day, maybe a week? They had known him for half their lives now. That caused him to shiver, and weep. He was overcome with sadness. His hands trembled and bare palms slapped the ground while he whimpered. A glow around it grew, then receded. Lousine kept her distance, but still tried her best to be patient. She knelt down where he crouched, to be levelled to him.  
“Just come with us. We will all work this out.” They heard heavily approaching footsteps. Ayan. Firus was too weak, neither he nor Lousine could stop Ayan from ramming into him and grabbing him by the throat. Firus’ eyes were a panicky pale grey as he felt the air burning in his lungs. Ayan yelled at him, words he couldn’t comprehend from the blood staying stuck in his head. It rushed and knocked in his ears. The ringing would not stop. He couldn’t hear. Air, movement, safety, Albedo, he needed it! He didn’t want to die!There was only one thing he could do. One thing for him to be free.All he could do…

Another blast of magic and Ayan was flung to the other side of the square, crashing straight into the bricks of a house. He wailed from a distance. Firus, Lousine, the city-folk and even the enchanted ones stared at the impact. Firus’ breath hitched before he crawled backwards. Another thing done, and not done right. He had hurt again! But it was all he could do! He didn’t want to die! He crawled away as far from Lousine and the crowds as he could, panicking thoughts racing through his head. He needed to leave, he had to leave. It did not help him when Ayan crawled back up from the rubble. He looked hurt, scathed, but even angrier. And he looked straight at him.   
“Don’t… Don’t come near.” Firus warned, pointing a shaking hand at Ayan. “Get him- GET HIM!”   
If as one, there the enchanted people went, approaching Ayan in their same, shuffling pattern, looking glazed, the locks on their ears buzzing heavily. “GET HIM, MY DREAM-WOVEN!”The lucid people watched in shock as Ayan pulled his sword. Especially Lousine was disgusted. “Ayan, are you out of your mind?! These are innocent people!” But Ayan only pointed his sword at Firus. His green eyes were almost hissing with hate. “He’s not innocent!” He ran one step, but was immediately surrounded by the sleepwalking people, the Dream-Woven. They stood in front of Ayan and restricted his movement, and indeed, Ayan would not dare lay a single hit on one of them. He was mad, yes, but not insane.   
Firus could breathe, if only for a while. But Lousine approached him, he saw it, and the people were getting rowdy as they tried to push the Dream-Woven back into place. He could hear Ayan yell and, to be honest, he had absolutely no idea where Vuraria was. His panic still wasn’t over. He wanted to be alone, held in something that wasn’t chains, and he wanted to be listened to. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want all of this any more. But he was too far in to back down now. With his back against the wall, he stood up. Princess Lousine approached. A next target. He could hold her hostage until he had the respect he wanted. Then, he’d take Albedo, and leave. No… The enchantment, he forgot about that. But, what harm could it do? At least they made him feel protected. He could…- “Firus?” The pale, panicking wizard snapped back into the world, and out of his thoughts. Bright-blue eyes, riddled with panic, looked at the princess. There were specks of red appearing. “Firus, for Gröln’s sake. Please calm yourself so that we may talk this out.” She said in a calming, and reassuring voice, but it was just a little too late. He was completely out of it at this point. There was too much going through his head that, at one point, it just stopped. Firus went blank. All he could think about was his original plan. He stared straight at Lousine, which did not comfort her one bit. 

She looked at the bell-tower. She could see Vuraria, who had just crawled over the railing and was about to fly back down. Ayan was still stuck, entangled in a mass of hundreds of sleepwalking bodies.   
“Firus… I’m serious. It would be better for all of us if we solved this with words, like civilised people.”Firus gave her a blank stare in return. He was picking at the skin beside his nails, and there were small cracks of magic remaining between them. His face was pale from shock, or maybe it was the loss of blood from earlier that did it.“Funny…” Lousine cocked her head. Vuraria landed in the square, near the Dream-Woven. She too stared at Firus, waiting for Ayan to be free. “Pardon?” Lousine asked.-“That was the exact same thing that they said to me before locking me up. And for what?”

She saw him twist and raise his hand. Oh, no. “It was because I loved. Love! How can something like that be wrong?! But no matter…”The crowd started stirring. Something twinkled in the air. “You took from me what I love, and I will do the same to you.” 

Suddenly, the Dream-Woven moved. Not only did they now swarm Ayan, they moved to restrain Vuraria, and the townsfolk, and soon, they came for Lousine. And all she had was still the dagger that she held in front of her. It was the only thing separating her from Firus. 

“Hey, now…” Lousine said, with a tone that was cautious, yet calming. She stepped back, but the crowd was faster. Now that she once again had no one to fall back to she started to panic. This wasn’t fair! It simply wasn’t! 

They were rounded up by the Dream-Woven and forced to their knees in the middle of their swarming circle, where Firus stood in front of. His back was to the bell-tower. He faced Ayan, Lousine and Vuraria, who could only see him now, and the giant building towering above them. The city-folk were behind them, equally kneeling and bound.

“Finally, then! FINALLY it’s time for revenge! I have the three most Görne-damned powerful people of Phantasia kneeling before me! Oh, what a night, what a night!” Firus laughed out loud, and he turned around to twirl in circles in the square in the moonlight. His battle-worn cloak drafted around him in the wind as if it was of the finest, sparkliest satin. It was safe to say that he’d now completely lost it. 

-“What now?” Ayan asked. He was obviously in quite some pain. He hadn’t been vaulted against stones so hard since the incident with the trolls. Their hands were magically bound, which made it worse.  
-“What do you think?” Vuraria replied, in a whisper. “I worried killing him might be wrong but, look at him… He’s lost it.” She snickered at the Dreamweaver dancing in the moonlit square.   
-“For once…” princess Lousine breathed in heavily, then out. “I agree. But let’s agree to do it as humane as possible. We still don’t know what he did to Albedo, or how to get these Dream-Woven free.”   
Ayan shrugged. “To dispel magic, you need to eradicate the source. I said that before. If we do that, they and Albedo will be free. Right?” -“I mean… I literally checked on him just now, and he’s lucid, so…” Vuraria couldn’t help but snicker. Lousine and Ayan both turned to her in shock. “What?!” - “And you never told us?!”   
Vuraria shrugged. “I didn’t say he replied to me. I don’t know what that ginger faun-fucker did to him…” Her snicker quickly faded. She wanted Albedo back more than everyone. Well, except… 

A bolt rushed right over their heads, spreading a glimmering fog amongst where it hit hardest… The crowd. Screams of terror, followed by soft, agonising groans of ones stuck in a nightmare. “Shut up.” Firus commanded, once again turned to them, but now in the middle of the square. His left arm was outstretched, and his fingertips sizzled. His eyes, shining in the moonlight, were a bright orange-red. “Shut. Did I ask you to speak?!” 

The three immediately held their heads down. Lousine even softly wept as they heard the noises coming from behind her. The noise of more Dream-Woven. 

“I had never meant to hurt you, darlings, but you’ve left me no choice. You will aid me well as I proceed towards the capital, won’t you?” 

Vuraria lifted her head in a scowl, fire actually escaping from between her teeth. He was getting on her nerves again. “Like hell we will.”   
He lowered his left arm and raised his right. Purple hues were forming around the hand, priming and ready to be blasted out.   
“Wrong answer.” But, as Vuraria lifted her head, she saw something small happen on the bell-tower. A silhouette. A figure. “Albedo…” She whispered, but the others didn’t see or hear her.   
“What was that?!” snarled Firus. But Vuraria only shook her head and frowned once again. “Like HELL we will.” 

“One more damn question before you blow us to bits,” Ayan interrupted. Firus raised an eyebrow, his eyes glimmering a cocky red and amber. “What the hell did you do to Albedo before all this?”   
That made Firus laugh, twirling his fingers as if to play with the magic. “Talking. But I just borrowed his powers, that’s all. No wonder you keep him around so much! He really is a power-house, isn’t he? Or a power-bottom, rather…” He chuckled at his own joke that the other three didn’t understand, and then looked back at them with that cocky smirk.   
“Anyway, where were we?”

Gods, how long had he been out? Albedo barely managed to get himself to sit upright for the first few minutes, let alone stand. He felt weird, like his body was only an empty husk. He felt tired and without energy. But he forced himself, with everything he had, to hold onto the railing, and look down. His head felt like it was swirling from the inside. He saw the crowd first, of course. Then, three smaller people, bound. And there… 

“Firus.” He managed to get up. He saw what the Dreamweaver was about to do. Attack his friends. The one thing he did not want him doing. This made him horribly, terribly, incredibly mad. “Firus…!” 

“I just wonder how your poor, dear, horrible mother will react to seeing her own daughter be a part of my horde! I’ll be certain to remember the face of pure fear for you, Highness.” Firus chuckled, it had a mean undertone.   
Lousine had no response. She sat as she always sat when she would not sway under the insults. Gracious and firm, and gentle.  
In a final act of comfort, Ayan put his head on her shoulder. “Hey… I- A-At least we’ll be together, right?” Tears were actually about to form in his eyes. Vuraria was just trying to hide the smirk on her face. She’d definitely seen Albedo now, and she knew he saw them as well. They would be saved in no time!

“Well, goodbyes all said? Then we can move on to the next part, which was… Oh, yes!” He aimed his arm right at them, the swirling hue of purple just about ready to be fired. It certainly wouldn’t hit only the three of them. With that size, it could easily cover the entire city.  
“Goodnight, all of you.” chuckled the Dreamweaver. 

-“Hey!” he heard from behind, from far away, but he wasn’t swayed. Probably a trick played by one of these three to make him lose attention and screw up. That would only end in tragedy for him, and failure for his plan.   
-“Firus!” It sounded closer, more familiar, but he stopped himself from looking still. He pulled back his arm to deliver the blow…

-“FIRUS!”   
It was Albedo. Firus turned, finally, his eyes wide and baby-blue in shock. Dear, dear Albedo. The Albedo that he’d grown to love and despise so, so much. The magic was still ready to be fired, but he didn’t. He was completely ensnared by the man on top of the bell-tower.   
“How-…” Firus asked. “How did you-“ Then the bells rung. Midnight. Twelve hard hits on the massive bronzen thing, and the only thing Albedo had the power to do was to fling himself down over the roof. Before Firus could cast anything the older wizard had turned into an owl to slowly and softly descend to the ground, where he lay and then turned back to himself. He looked exhausted.   
Firus dispelled the bolt surrounding his arm somewhat, running over to him. “Albedo…” It was said with a mixture of guilt and relief. All that anger had left just as quickly as it had come.   
Albedo let himself get lifted up by Firus and all they did was stare, as the bells of the tower were ringing their solemn song at midnight, by the light of the moon. They, the two wizards, were the only ones fitting to understand each other. For once, Lousine, Ayan and Vuraria were simply the bystanders. 

“Can you let them go?” Albedo asked.-“I- I can but I-… What if they fall back on what they said? I don’t want to be trapped and hunted again!” Firus replied.Albedo sighed, and frowned. He held Firus’ hands in his own, unaware -or uncaring- that the magic now flowed onto him. It didn’t make him drowsy, as he thought it would. No, he instead felt his powers return.   
-“They will if you keep doing all this.” 

“It won’t help!” Firus cried out. “They keep hurting me regardless of what I do!” He removed his hands and turned away from Albedo, only to walk in a small circle and then back to him. He needed those hands. He needed that comfort.   
-“That is because you keep hurting THEM!” Albedo shouted back. “BE the Görne-damn bigger person for once and don’t reply to every threat they give you!”  
Firus wanted to walk more, walk away, he didn’t want to be proven wrong or be corrected anymore! But Albedo’s grip on him was tight, and he pulled Firus back. 

He said: “I think it’s time you let go of the Dreamweaver.” 

-“But I can’t! I just can’t! I do not want to be hurt again so I must hurt them instead! I MUST make this horde to protect myself!” Firus struggled to get loose and look away, but Albedo did not let him.   
“Peace has to come from both sides eventually.” 

-“I-… I-“ Firus had no say to this. It was a thing common for wizards that, where words did not suffice, their thoughts spoke between them and their minds did the hard work for them.

“But I simply don’t get it,” Firus now thought out loud. “You have been through the same misery as I have, probably even more.” And Albedo just nodded. -“Then how are you not filled with a lust for revenge? With a passion for justice to rival the gods themselves?”   
This made Albedo quiet, for a little moment. But that didn’t stop Firus.   
-“We have been alive for longer than anyone here. All that hate has to build up somehow, doesn’t it? Why should we have to suffer for longer?”Albedo still had no response.   
Firus cleared his throat. It sounded coarse, almost husky. “I don’t want me, or you, or anyone else like us to go through the same horrors we went through. I thought, if I disposed of everyone that was against us, and turned them to our side, that that would-…”-“Did that work?” Albedo asked.Firus didn’t reply. His eyes were a soft baby-blue. Albedo had slowly gotten his hawk-like eyes back. He couldn’t see it before, but the flush of a rainbow washed over his eyes when he was asleep.   
“I… No.” 

“My reason for not wanting revenge any longer is simple.” Now Albedo let go, but their thoughts still aligned. He waited for Firus to walk after him, which he did. The bell-tower had stopped chiming a while ago. They looked at it together. 

“Those that were responsible have been long, long gone, Firus. Decades, if not a few centuries, have passed already. They fear me only because they know what a wizard can do, not because of what I have done. I have stopped resenting those who have no idea what even happened to me.” Albedo rubbed his hands. The night had turned them cold, and Firus didn’t hold his any more.   
Saying this felt like a weight off of Albedo’s chest. He realised now that Firus was in the same situation he once was in, filled with loathing and hatred and a need to give that to others. He was glad he moved past that. He thought of his brother, falling through a chasm, never seeing him again. He thought once more of his lost fiancé, one night before burning at the stake, how he hated everything and everyone when it happened and lived a life isolated from the world in a hollowed-out cave in the woods. He did not want Firus to go down that path, not anymore.

Albedo decided to take matters into his own hands, literally. The two once again locked eyes and their train of thought began anew, with none in the crowd any the wiser. All they saw was the two of them, walking and humming and occasionally holding hands.  
“I believe in you, Firus. I love you, even. But I know you can be better than this. 

Firus heaved, a stream of tears flowing down his pale, thin face. His eyes had even darker rims underneath, streaming with dark lines. His hair was a mess and he was covered still with bruises, abrasions and filth. He was no longer the Dreamweaver, or a threat. He was just a poor, broken wizard.“But when what can I do? Who will I be? What can I give them?”  
And Albedo turned to him and, without missing a beat, said;   
“Forgiveness.”

Firus’ baby-blue eyes turned a deep, deep, sorrowful blue. The colour of an airless depth beneath the waves. He looked at Albedo, and noticed the old man had meant what he said. Every word of it. Albedo’s hawk-eyes, while not blue, were just as sorrowful as his and yet, they carried that little spark of hope. For them. For him.  
Firus could not stop himself from crying once more. His hands and lips trembled and before he knew it he flew into Albedo’s arms, weeping and wailing out his deepest doubts and fears. Albedo wrapped his arms around Firus, letting his head lean besides the other’s. No words were said, only emotions felt, and they remained like that until another bell rung through the sky. 

Ayan had kept a tight eye on the clock. Odd… “It’s not even one in the morning yet. Where did-“ Another ringing bell warned them. The three, and even the Dream-Woven, turned their heads to the sound, it came from the gates.

“Coming through! Coming through! Here are the tracks, boys! We’ve got them now!” They heard echoing through the streets. They, the three kids and Albedo, knew that voice all too well. “Guards.” noted Lousine. “Ladanor.”   
Ayan stood up, his knees felt like water from kneeling so long. “Wow… I’m cold. Where’s my crossbow?” It didn’t bother him that his hands were still tied. Magically, even. No way they would get loose.   
“On the ground. There. Let me get it.” Vuraria gestured before turned into a small rat, still exhausted as she was, but found that the ties changed to fit her even then. Rat-Vuraria squealed in pain before turning back. “Faun-dung.”   
“Well, it’s been nice knowing you all.” Ayan said ironically, cracking his neck. “If we don’t get these bindings off, we’re toast.”

Albedo’s head jolted towards the noise, ears peaked and face focussed like a large wildcat. He then looked back at Firus, instead moving his hands to cup the pale man’s face. “Can you please release the others, Firus? After that, you can leave. Okay?”   
Firus thought about it for a while, wiping the dark streams of tears out of his eyes, and down past his face. “I… Completely forgot about them.” He was exhausted, and it showed clearly. All that adrenaline and hate was gone, and he could barely stand. “Just let them go. After that, we will handle the rest. Then you can leave, rebuild. Improve. Alright?” He simply could not stop looking in those beautiful eyes with flowing colours…  
Firus nodded, twisting his hand for the final time that night. He leaned in for a kiss, which Albedo gladly returned. Then, with a poof of purple smoke, he felt Firus was gone. He had hold true to his word.   
Albedo cracked his knuckles, turning his attention to the quickly approaching clanks of metal boots and rough, harsh commands sounding through the streets. Now they had to fulfil their part of the bargain. 

Albedo quickly ran towards his friends, who were busy gathering their fallen weapons from the floor. They hugged in pure relief for just a moment before the sound came closer. The guards were almost at the square.   
“How did you-“ Vuraria asked.Albedo shook no. “No time for that now. Later. Gather up everyone. I’m going to get us out of here.” He clapped his hands, rubbing them together in anticipation.   
Ayan, Lousine and Vuraria did not have to take long to gather the people, at all. They were all awake, blinking and confused as to why they were in the city instead of in their beds. The locks were no longer on their ears, as if they had never been there at all.“We shall explain all of this as you have been guided to your homes. Now, please stay still. Everyone from Florins, please stand just a little to the left.” Lousine assured them. And most of the awoken people did listen. She was the princess, after all. 

“Now, people, take a deep breath…” Albedo hummed. He rubbed his hands together faster and faster, waiting for the moment where he could see a flush of magical flame escape. Ayan looked worried at the square. He saw the shadows of the guards across the walls. They were mere seconds away from…   
“HAAH!” As if hit by thunder Albedo raised his hands, forming a sphere around him, his friends, and the folk from the villages. Those who were from Florins could only watch in awe as the sphere vanished, with the people inside it, and they stood in confusion as the guards, lead by Ladanor, roughly entered the square. 

“Where are they…” Ladanor growled. The moonlight only worsened his half-disfigured face. “Where is that goddamn group?!” He stomped over to the nearest person still in the crowd, grabbing them by the collar to demand questions. They could only stammer. -“We-We barely remember it ourselves, lord. One moment we’re hearing a commotion, next we see a wizard fighting the princess and some other people. Everything after that was a blur until we, well, woke up here.” Ladanor was not pleased with this answer. “Sleepwalking… Can’t learn anything from you.” He pushed the commoner out of his way and stomped over the square, his troop of guards following him. “Search every single of this city. I know they were here, I just know it!”   
Perhaps from his rage, or perhaps from the fact that he was very, very tired, he overlooked the clear details of a magic battle taking place. The places of impact were still sizzling. Spatters of blood were spread like snowflakes on a blanket. The only thing he didn’t overlook was the strip of cloth, right near his armoured feet. The cloth from where Firus had hit Lousine on the arm. Ladanor grabbed it, looked at it, rubbed it between his fingers, and growled once more. “If we find nothing, I will cut half of all your salaries, and I will double the training! Now let’s move!” As his guards went forward to search, he clenched his hand that held the strip of cloth. “They were here… They were… And I WILL find them, magic or not.”

It was early in the afternoon when the last people were brought back to their villages. Happy families and friends greeted them, confused about what happened, but the group brushed it off as saying it was just a natural phenomenon. If the people knew it was Firus, the hunt would start over. They, but mostly Albedo, wanted the ex-Dream-Weaver to start with a clean slate. Albedo had told the three what he and Firus talked about once they were out of people to guide back home.   
“It’s a long… Uh, story, and a confusing one to boot.” Ayan commented. Albedo shrugged, smiling a little. “Everything wizards do is long and confusing.” He was in a cheerier mood than usual. “He’s strong, though, I’ll give him that.” Both Ayan and Albedo nodded. “Would love to spar with him again sometime.” Ayan added, cracking his knuckles. Albedo smiled even brighter. “He would turn you into a cooked egg with the blink of an eye.” - “YUM!” Ayan said. That sudden call made Albedo snort with laughter.   
Vuraria and Lousine were just enjoying the weather. The sun shone, the people were happy, and they just had the best sleep in days. It was as if Firus himself was apologising to them, indirectly. 

Vuraria cracked a joke about it, slapping Albedo on the shoulder. “So he was just as old and bitter and angry as you? Huh, who’d have figured…” Albedo, for the first time, laughed out loud to her joke. He had to hold his stomach to not double over. Lousine, meanwhile, beheld all this, and took notes of the previous days, with a sketch of Firus to boot. “All’s well that ends well, then?” She asked. “Except for those toads in the swamp, I guess.” Vuraria said as she rolled her eyes. “But they were a bore anyway.”Lousine chuckled, making more notes. “I just hope I can convince my mother to leave Firus be.”   
Albedo put a well-meaning, gentle hand on her shoulder. “That is not up to her, no. That is up to him.” “How do you mean?” Lousine asked. The others, as well, raised their heads at their old friend.   
But Albedo only smiled. “That is a secret.” 

They arrived, a few days later, at the swamp-village to pick Bayo back up. Ayan ran towards his horse and hugged it tightly, rubbing the horse’s neck and pushing their heads together. “I missed you, boy! I missed yooouuuu!”   
Bayo returned his gesture the raising and lowering his head and stamping in the ground, wanting to go. “Well, well… There we all are.” said an approaching voice. It was the priest. Even he looked happier than ever. In the village behind him, those that were once affected were now happily walking around, giving hugs to their families and reuniting with great joy. All they could remember from the whole ordeal was flashes, like in a dream. But it didn’t matter. They were back, and they were awake!“That we are.” Lousine said, gently bowing down. She still wore the tattered dress. No longer did it look fit for someone with status, but it didn’t matter to her much.   
“And the people that were asleep have returned! The town looks better than ever!” said the priest. He looked peaceful about all this. Albedo just smiled and nodded. Nothing could ruin their good mood now.   
“Did you… Ever find out what it was that caused these people to behave that way?” asked the priest. Ayan, Lousine, Vuraria and Albedo looked at each other, smiled, then nodded. “A miasma from the swamps.” Albedo explained. It was a big fat lie, but one to keep Firus safe. “It rises like a bubbling gas would, and anyone that comes in contact with it just… Sleeps.”  
The priest listened patiently. “And why did they start walking and leaving the village?” -“The miasma was magical in origin. It gave those affected a hive-mind-structure. But worry not,” Albedo continued, before being interrupted by Ayan.“-‘Cause we got the source and then beat its ass! Now no one will be hurt by it ever again!” He held his fist in the air, still holding Bayo tight by the reins.   
The priest smiled, then gently bowed down. Even the bald spot on his head looked peaceful. “That is a relief. You truly are heroes of this village. If there is anything that you would ever need done…”   
-“Well, a good glass of drink would be nice, thank you.” Lousine said, fully aware they had been living off waterskins and river-water for the past few days. Vuraria and Ayan gave her a surprised, but very approving look. “One of us, one of us! One of us! One of us!” Vuraria chanted. Ayan just laughed. She really was starting to become more like them!  
The priest smiled. “That can be arranged. And, as I see it…” He eyed the three. “Those tattered clothes would not even keep out the wind. I’ll have the village tailor provide some for you. And you, sir?” He asked Albedo. The old wizard still had a smile on his face, but he didn’t seem to be interested in the drinking or the change of clothes.   
“No, thank you kindly. I have other matters to attend to.” He turned to Ayan, Lousine, and Vuraria and gave Bayo a quick pat on the head, ruffling the manes. The horse nickered. 

“I will be gone for a while. Meet me in front of Storyteller’s Plains in three days. You will be alright by yourself for a while, right?” Ayan, Vuraria and Lousine looked at each other in confused thoughts, but eventually nodded. “We’ll just be right here until then.” Vuraria said with a smile. But Ayan was curious. “What will you do then?” “Business.” Albedo replied, his own rare smile now being more serious. “Classified old-man wizard-business.” That did make him chuckle. He crouched down and pulled the three in for a hug. “I love you three a lot, you know that?”   
Vuraria frowned. “Don’t tell us you’re going to die or something.” She did return the hug, however.“Pfff, him?” Ayan scoffed, holding his old friend tight. “You know what he’s capable of?” Lousine nodded. “Exactly.” She nodded gently while hugging Albedo all the same. “We will be fine. Thank you, Albedo.”   
The old man stood back up and let go. He gave his friends one more smile, and then walked between the crowds of the village. People walked all around so, when they looked long enough, Albedo was as if never even there. He’d vanished.

“Anyway;” Ayan called out, pounding his chest. “Let’s get that drink!” Vuraria laughed, adding to that statement. “Let’s go, boys!”   
And while they walked to the inn to get a celebratory round, Lousine did take a peek at Ayan and Vuraria. “Pardon… Are we-”-“What?” Vuraria asked. Not annoyed, simply curious.  
Lousine grabbed her notes. “Are we just going to ignore that those two wizards kissed?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well finally done except for an epilogue that is kind-of smutty that i haven't finished so... we'll see.   
> main story is done at least. and horribly horribly flawed. i don't like it and i need to remake this.   
> still hope you enjoy it anyway.


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!!!NSWF SO BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Albedo goes to Firus' house to check on him, but it doesn't end in a way they think it would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so /not/ sorry.

There was a knock on the door of the swamp-house. Albedo was careful to not knock exactly where the door had been broken before. He didn’t want any splinters. Before long the owner -and only inhabitant- of the house welcomed him. None other than Firus. Still pale, still wounded, but bandaged and, while tired, looking a whole lot better than he did the few nights before. He leaned against the doorframe, giving Albedo a smug, but welcoming look.   
“Yes? Why are you here at this time of day? I was busy cleaning up the mess.”

Albedo lightly chuckled, holding up a bottle of alcohol he’d stored in his pocket. They’d gotten that as a gesture of good will in one of the villages, and Albedo insisted that he, and not Ayan, were to get it. ‘For potions’, he lied. But that was days ago. He wanted it for the two of them.  
“Well, you told me to meet you. In a dream, that is. Now am I allowed to come in or not? This bottle won’t drink itself.”

He felt the weight of the bottle lessen, and as he lifted it to look, it was a quarter of the way down. The cork hadn’t even be removed. He looked back at Firus in the doorway, holding two tall glasses. The liquid was in there already. “Or will it?”

The two wizards sat on the table that was cleaned of broken glass and thrown ingredients. There was some mess left yet, but most of it had been moved to the corners. Firus gestured graciously at the brooms and tins moving on their own to clean up the mess. “Thank goodness for magic, hm?” They laughed at Firus’ little joke and drank. It made Albedo cough. He didn’t really drink alcohol much, but he wanted to bring it as a nice gesture. And that made Firus laugh even harder.   
“Don’t tell me you are a lightweight.” “Unfortunately.” Albedo responded, coughing once again before taking a couple of deep breaths. Firus patted him on the back while still seated at the other end of the table. It was a magic hand. Albedo stifled another cough while Firus only kept giggling. “Well, at least you know how to entertain a man!” That did cause Albedo to break out in a snorting laughter again. Soon enough they were leaning over the table wheezing with pain in their stomachs for absolutely no reason. 

“Anyhow…-“ Firus began, minutes after, as he wiped away the last of his tears. Albedo sat back into his chair with his hand in front of his mouth. “I assume you didn’t come here only to laugh?” -“ No, you are correct in assuming that.” Albedo replied with a hum. “I-“ -“And ‘simply checking to see how I am doing’ falls in that same aspect.” Firus added, letting his elbow rest on the table. His head rested on his hand. He gave Albedo a sly, yet curious look, orange and playful canary-yellow in his eyes. 

Albedo shook his head. “Just seeing if you are holding true to your promise… And will.” Albedo took a glance of his drink before taking a sip small enough for him not to cough, then looking back at Firus. “Don’t worry about that, silly man. I have learned my lesson.” Albedo, oddly hopeful as he was -and this was rare-, still had his doubts. “Well, how then?” 

Firus’ smile wavered a little bit, and the coy look in his eyes was quickly flushed by a swirl of very light-blue and grey. It betrayed a flush of fear. Not knowing. Uneasiness.   
It was gone as quickly as it had come. Firus had his smile back, and raised one eyebrow towards the older wizard. “I will figure out on the way.” He downed the contents of the cup in one go, reaching for the bottle once again. Albedo frowned, and he shook his head as he sighed deeply which caused Firus to get that grey-blue flush in his eyes again. “And what if you won’t? What if you spiral back into it?” He pulled back the bottle so it was just out of Firus’ hands. “That won’t happen. Don’t be so pessimistic!” the ginger wizard said, a slight hint of anger in his voice. Once again he reached for the bottle that Albedo kept away from him. “Now let us just enjoy the rest of the day.” Albedo, ready to give him a boring speech once again, stopped. He had a revelation, an idea, and birthed from that idea a grin of his own grew on his face. Firus didn’t like the looks of it. What did he want?   
“What are you willing to do for it?” 

Firus had not expected this answer at all. Despite him still being pale from his wounds, a red flush grew on his cheeks. He leaned back in his own chair, laying his hands patiently on the table. “Many things,” he replied, keeping his eyes on Albedo with not one bit of him moving except for the swirls of red, pink and deep orange in his eyes. “I could come over to your side of the table and drink there with you. I could pin you to the floor so you couldn’t stop me from taking the bottle. I could bend you over the table right now so the bottle is just in my reach…” He leaned forward, but only a little. To tease Albedo to do the same. “Or will that be too much for you to handle?”   
Albedo had a hard time keeping his own grin without being a flustered mess right in front of the younger wizard. He still kept the bottle tight in his hand. “I could move away from the table. I could become a spider and crawl to the ceiling where you could reach.”   
-“Bah,” replied Firus, scrunching his face in slight joking disgust, sticking out his tongue. “Don’t start about spiders now, bastard!” The two could not help but laugh at this as Albedo passed the bottle back to Firus, who poured his glass full.“Dusk Paradise! I haven’t had one of these in a long time! How did you know this was my favourite?”   
-“Luck.” Albedo lied. “Given to me by one of those towns we passed. Well… Me and the young ones.” Firus raised an eyebrow again, out of disbelief. The orange in his irises fizzed and sparkled. “I know you’re lying, dear. This is not even my favourite.” “Oh.” Albedo said before the both of them erupted in a fit of laughter again. It came out of nowhere. Albedo swore he hadn’t laughed this hard in decades-no, centuries. He was leaning over the table once again, feeling the tears come up. His hand reached out to slap the table, but it touched something else.   
Soft. Tender. Warm. Firus. 

His laughing stopped. He looked up, Firus was still doubled over on his own, almost spilling the drink in his hand. Albedo’s free hand reached out before it was too late, his other one holding Firus’ hand where it was. He didn’t want to let go. A couple of droplets reached Firus’ face, but nothing more happened. The younger, flamboyant wizard blinked and looked up. His flustered blush returned, blood-orange and deep red in his eyes. Something with desire. “Your… Drink fell. Or was about to…” Albedo blurted out. Their laughter reduced to nothing more than a sheepish chuckle, Firus gently moved his glass back to the table before looking at what he had gotten himself into. He stared at Albedo. There was something other than the air still between them. Something only they could feel.

“This wasn’t just about the drink, was it?” he asked, half out of breath. To which Albedo could only nod. They were so close…The rest happened in a flush. A lean, a kiss, then more. Hands all over, almost falling over the table before resorting to make out on the floor. “Too dirty, we need-“ The wall, Albedo’s back pushed against it. Albedo let it happen. He knew Firus was hurt still. He didn’t want to hurt him further. He didn’t know what to do, or where they would take this, but it seemed that Firus knew how to hit every spot correctly. Albedo felt it, Firus must’ve had tons of experience whereas he himself had naught but one. It made him a bit insecure, reluctant to touch him. What if he hurt Firus? Someone he loved more than he’d loved anyone else before? “Don’t be so careful, my dear…” Firus said. He smiled, his breath was heavy, his chest rising and falling, his freckled face was red. “I won’t break.” Albedo simply stared at him, flushed with every feeling under the sun, but fear and love and lust battling inside his head and his chest over who got to win and get the gold tonight.  
“You’re still hurt.” he brushed his hand past the bandage Firus had on his arm. His coat and his vest had long since then made it to the floor, as had Albedo’s. Their pants were still on. The sensation of the touch made Firus shiver. “I’m… well aware. Don’t be afraid. Are we going to play doctor or are we-“ Albedo slammed his lips onto Firus’ before he could finish. There the hands went again, brushing and scratching at everything that wasn’t bandaged or hadn’t left a scar. In between gasps the kisses continued; lips, ears, neck, shoulders. But they both wanted more… They needed to. “Bedroom…” Firus mouthed into Albedo’s ear, biting it gently. Albedo responded in part by moving his hands down to Firus’ waist, pulling it against his own as he growled “Where?” Firus shuddered at that. He loved it, that primal anger that Albedo only rarely showed. He gently moved away from Albedo’s grabbing hands, letting one finger drag under his grisly bearded chin, then turning around to retreat to his bedroom with a slow, devilishly teasing sway of his hips. 

Albedo lowered his head, staring at him with his brows furrowed and his cheeks deep red, his mouth slightly open in a snarl. The love and lust had won that night. He heard Firus giggle as he was about to leave through the door. And Albedo followed.  
The room had more book-cases. A beautiful rug below, a chandelier of soft rosé light shining around the room. Atop the rug was a beautifully wide, neat-looking bed of purple blankets. It looked like the bed fit for a king. But Albedo had no thought about kings right now. He practically pushed the paler man onto the bed face-first before crawling over him, caring about nothing but Firus. Needing him.This caused Firus to struggle, and turn around on the bed with red, but the angry sort, in his eyes. Albedo let go, but still sat. There was surprise on his face.

“Don’t do that all of a sudden! I want to breathe!” he grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away. “You made me mad.” -“Fi’…” Albedo stammered, but no words could sway him. He did what seemed reasonable next, gently moving his hands over Firus’ sides, slowly and softly, as in a massage. He saw Firus’ lip tremble, the eyes getting looser. The arms remained firm. So Albedo continued. He leaned in, careful this time, rubbing his face against that of Firus, like an animal begging for forgiveness. That quickly resorted to licking his ear, hands still rubbing on his sides, moving lower. “Firus…” Albedo begged again. “Please…”   
And there, finally, a shift. A small, stifled laugh from the one beneath, but above him. A turn back to face him, eyes light-pink, and swirls and speckles of pure purple and red. “Dear…” was all that needed to be said. The kissing and caressing continued, still soft and gentle at first, getting faster and rougher in feeling and tempo before Albedo stopped once again. “I- I really don’t want….” Firus sighed, pressing his hand against the unkept chest that housed Albedo’s hammering heart. “Then let me do it… Lie down.”   
Albedo did only as Firus asked, it was all he wanted and all he felt like he could do. He felt the hands move and the weight shift to his lap. The pressure grew, the covers undone. It happened so fast… 

They did not even notice what had been peeping on them through the window at the foot-end of the bed. Ayan, who was curious as to where they went. And he could not believe what he saw. Once he was back to the town, racing as fast as he could, he relayed to Vuraria and Lousine what he saw. They were curious, and as with curiosity often goes they sent a test-rat (in this case, Ayan) to scout and tell them what happened. 

“Well, I don’t know what they did beforehand, but they got into the room and they-“ -“Were they kissing?” asked Lousine. “I legitimately need to know.”   
Ayan nodded frantically. “And Firus was still hurt from when we beat him up, I think, because he was lying down on the bed and it sounded like he had a fever, because he looked red and they were both breathing funny.”-“And then?” Vuraria asked. Lousine looked up from taking notes with a slightly disgusted face.  
Ayan waved his hands excitedly. “Let me finish! Let me finish! I think I saw the thing making Firus sick, because he took off his hands and there was this weird eel-looking thing. It looked big, really big! And there was another eel and they were trying to kill that one by squishing it in-between them! And as they did that Firus looked really scared, because his eyes went wide and his mouth went open and he ran out of air and said things like “Oh gods” and everything!” Ayan took a quick swig of his drink as the princess and the shapeshifter listened breathlessly. 

“I should probably tell Albedo there’s much bigger eels that swim in the lake, but nevertheless it was a really hard battle! They were gasping and growling and screaming and everything! Albedo tried wringing the life out of the other eel with his hands, I think he tried choking it or something. After a while of fighting that one eel died, I think… It uh- It went all limp and part of its intestines came out.”   
-“Eeeeeeeew!” gagged Vuraria, but she grinned, and Lousine too seemed appalled and slightly afraid.   
Ayan took another swig and then raised his hand. “But I wasn’t done! Firus climbed off of Albedo and they killed that eel too, but they still kept going with kissing and everything… I didn’t really hear what they said. But as it turns out, one of the eels hadn’t died yet! It came back up and it was fighting again. Maybe eels have nine lives or something… This time Firus killed the eel by sitting on it! That took like, half an hour, but then the eel was dead for good! And I knew it was dead because this time because they smothered them with a cloth and threw that away.” 

Ayan didn’t really get why Lousine fainted after that. Vuraria just laughed really, really hard.


End file.
